eanscan-cli

A CLI and an MCP server that turn an EAN/UPC barcode into a localized product description (title, description, features, price, images) using the Eanscan API.

• eanscan — command-line tool
• eanscan-mcp — Model Context Protocol server (stdio), usable from Claude (Desktop / Code) and GitHub Copilot (VS Code).

Install

# from the repo
pnpm install
pnpm build

# or, once published
npm install -g eanscan-cli

Configuration

| Env var | Default | Purpose | | ------------------ | --------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | | EANSCAN_API_URL | https://api.eanscan.com | API base URL | | EANSCAN_API_KEY | (unset) | Optional, sent as the x-api-key header | | EANSCAN_TIMEOUT_MS | 120000 | Per-request timeout used by the MCP tool |

Copy .env.example to .env to set them locally, or pass --api-url / --api-key on the CLI.

CLI usage

eanscan 5449000000996                 # English description (default)
eanscan 5449000000996 -l fr           # French
eanscan 5449000000996 --all           # every available locale
eanscan 5449000000996 --json          # raw product JSON
eanscan 5449000000996 -f description   # just the description text
eanscan 5449000000996 -f title -l de  # German title only

# Batch: pass several EANs at once (looked up concurrently)
eanscan 5449000000996 4006381333931 --json
eanscan 5449000000996 4006381333931 -c 10   # up to 10 in flight

# Bound how long a single request may take
eanscan 5449000000996 --timeout 30000        # 30s

Flags: --timeout <ms> (default 120000) caps each request; --concurrency <n> (default 5) limits parallel lookups in batch mode.

With multiple EANs, --json emits an array of { ean, data, error? }.

Exit codes: 0 all found · 1 any error (bad input, network, API, timeout) · 2 any EAN had no product.

MCP server

The server speaks MCP over stdio and exposes one tool:

lookup_ean — params: ean (12–14 digit string), locale (fr | en | es | de, default en). Returns a human-readable description plus the full product object as structuredContent.

Claude Code

claude mcp add eanscan -- node /absolute/path/to/eanscan-cli/dist/mcp.js

Claude Desktop

Edit claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "eanscan": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/eanscan-cli/dist/mcp.js"],
      "env": {
        "EANSCAN_API_URL": "https://api.eanscan.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace (or the global MCP settings):

{
  "servers": {
    "eanscan": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/eanscan-cli/dist/mcp.js"]
    }
  }
}

Then in Copilot Chat (agent mode) you can ask: "Look up EAN 5449000000996 in French."

Development

pnpm dev:cli 5449000000996   # run the CLI from source (tsx)
pnpm dev:mcp                 # run the MCP server from source
pnpm typecheck