Local AI research and tooling, built in the open.
Local models, device routing, datasets, training and verification.
The work lives at mcp-tool-shop-org, and most of it is measured on one Windows workstation with an RTX 5090.
mcptoolshop.com · The Bench, the research newsletter · readouts, verified knowledge · Every tool
What I'm working on
Research
- rnd: the research bench. Sourced entries, experiments run on the rig with their receipts, and a weekly watch of NVIDIA, CUDA and the local-inference projects. Its newsletter is The Bench.
- readouts: verified, source-backed SQLite knowledge bases. A topic moves here from rnd once its claims are checked. What's new.
Local inference and routing
- interlock: a local AI device router for the RTX 5090 and the Intel NPU and iGPU. It measures before it routes. A prototype.
- offrig: run big models and GPU jobs on rented RunPod GPUs, with the price planned before anything starts.
- ollama-intern-mcp: a local intern for Claude Code. It hands bulk analysis to a model running in Ollama.
Training and datasets
- backpropagate: headless fine-tuning with VRAM-aware defaults and GGUF export for Ollama.
- aspire-si: train a model to take on a teacher's judgment through adversarial dialogue, with a learned critic.
Agents and verification
- testing-os, home of Atlas: a map of each repository (its parts, the workflows that start work, and what a change reaches) that CI checks on every push.
- role-os: staffs coding-agent work through role contracts, missions and a critic jury.
- loadout-os: routes the right context to the model when it's needed, instead of loading it all at once.
- shipcheck: the release quality gate every repository passes before it ships.
Media and music
The full list, sorted by area, is at mcptoolshop.com/tools.
How the work is done
- Measured, with receipts. A number about the rig comes from a run on the rig, and the run's record is committed beside it.
- Claims are tiered. Every source is labelled by tier, and a claim stays unverified until something checks it.
- Local first. Models run on the workstation. A rented GPU is used only when a job needs more, and its price is planned first.
- Small steps in the open. Changes land by pull request with their tests, and each repository keeps a map that CI checks.
This repository
The catalog and publishing engine behind mcptoolshop.com. It reads the GitHub organization and the ecosystem catalog, merges the hand-reviewed overrides, and builds the site. An install command is published only when the organization owns the package, so it is never guessed from a repository's name.
Quickstart
Node 22, on Windows, macOS or Linux.
git clone https://github.com/mcp-tool-shop/mcp-tool-shop.git
cd mcp-tool-shop/site
npm install
npm run dev # localhost:4321
To list a tool, push its repository to mcp-tool-shop-org and run the "Sync org metadata" action. It appears on the next deploy. Other organizations can run the engine for their own catalog: see Portable Core.
Documentation
| Doc | Purpose |
|---|
| Handbook | How the site works, common tasks, glossary |
| Automation contract | Data ownership, override schema, merge rules |
| Ops Runbook | Weekly operations, the promotion pipeline, error codes |
| Quickstart | Zero to a trust receipt in 5 minutes (npm package) |
| Presskit Handbook | Brand assets, blurbs, verification examples for press |
| Security model | Threat model, sanitization, CI controls |
| Contributing | Local development and testing |
Security and data scope
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|
| Data touched | GitHub organization metadata (through the API), tool manifests (JSON), the site's build output |
| Data not touched | No user data, no analytics, no external tracking services |
| Permissions | Read: the GitHub API (organization repositories and releases). Write: the site's data files and build output |
| Network | The GitHub API only, for the organization metadata sync |
| Telemetry | None collected or sent |
See SECURITY.md and docs/SECURITY-MODEL.md for the full model. The release gate's results are in SHIP_GATE.md and SCORECARD.md. Issues go to the issue tracker.
mcp-tool-shop-org · mcptoolshop.com
