amazon-creators-mcp

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# Amazon Creators API MCP - paste-ready affiliate product cards, straight from a chat

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If you write product round-ups, you already know the boring part. You find the product on Amazon, copy the image, grab the price, paste your affiliate link, and hope the price hasn't moved by the time someone reads the post. Then you do it again for the next nine products.

This does that part for you. You ask Claude to find something, it searches the live Amazon catalogue, and it hands you back a finished HTML card - image, price, savings, star rating, your Associates tag already baked into the link, and the disclosure footer Amazon requires. Paste it into WordPress, Ghost, Substack, whatever you write in. In Claude Desktop you even see the card render before you copy it.

Built on the **Amazon Creators API** - the REST API that replaced Product Advertising API 5.0 when Amazon retired the old endpoint on 15 May 2026. If your workflow still points at PA-API, it's been dead for a while now. This is the way back in.

<p align="center">
  <img src="images/example-grid.svg" alt="Three Amazon product cards in a responsive grid, each with an image, title, brand and star rating, price with retrieval timestamp, a savings line, and a yellow View on Amazon button, above the Associates disclosure" width="820" />
</p>
<p align="center"><em>One "make a grid of these" and you get this - styles inlined, tag in every link, disclosure at the bottom. Paste it and move on.</em></p>

> **Quick nav**
>
> [Who it's for](#who-its-for) · [How you'll actually use it](#how-youll-actually-use-it) · [Getting your API key](#getting-your-api-key) · [Install](#install) · [Environment variables](#environment-variables) · [Tools](#tools) · [Output formats](#output-formats) · [Styling](#styling-the-cards) · [Associates compliance](#associates-compliance) · [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting)

---

## Who it's for

- **Affiliate bloggers and niche-site owners** who live in round-ups and "best X for Y" posts, and want the product embeds done in seconds instead of by hand.
- **Content and SEO teams** who need consistent, on-brand product cards across a lot of articles, without a developer wiring up the API each time.
- **Newsletter writers** on Substack, Ghost or beehiiv who just want clean HTML they can drop into an issue.
- **Anyone migrating off PA-API 5.0** who needs a working replacement now that the old endpoint is gone.

You don't need to know what an API is to use it - if you can add an MCP server to Claude and paste your Associates keys once, you're set. The [key bit](#getting-your-api-key) is having an eligible Associates account.

---

## How you'll use it

The whole thing is built around a conversation, not a form. You describe what you're writing about, Claude searches and summarises, and it only spits out HTML when you actually ask for the embed. Here's the shape of it.

### 1. Find products for a post

> *"Find me the best direct-drive racing wheels under £500"*

Claude runs `search_items` and comes back with a plain summary - no HTML yet:

> *Found 8 direct-drive wheels under £500. The ones worth a look:*
> *• Fanatec CSL DD (£349) - well reviewed, 5 Nm motor*
> *• Moza R5 Bundle (£469) - comes with pedals, 5.5 Nm*
> *• Cammus C5 (£399) - compact*
> *Want me to build an embeddable grid for these?*

### 2. Build the card or grid

> *"Yes, make a grid of the top three"*

Now it switches to `format: 'html-grid'` and returns a complete HTML document. Images, prices, savings, stars, your tag, the "as of" timestamp, the disclosure footer. All of it. Paste and you're done.

### 3. Restyle it without burning your rate limit

This is the bit that saves you. The Creators API has real rate limits (roughly a request a second to start with, climbing as you drive more sales), so you don't want to re-query Amazon every time you fancy a different colour. You don't have to. Claude keeps the data from the last call and re-renders locally:

> *"Same grid, but dark cards and hotpink buttons"*

```json
{
  "response": { "searchResult": { "items": [ /* from the previous call */ ] } },
  "format": "html-grid",
  "customStyles": ".amzn-card{background:#0f172a;color:#f1f5f9} .amzn-card__cta{background:hotpink;color:#111}"
}
```

Twenty style tweaks, zero extra API calls. Iterate on the look as much as you like.

### 4. Look up specific ASINs

> *"Get me the current details for B09B2SBHQK, B08N5M7S6K and B0BZC6YR7Q"*

Claude calls `get_items` and summarises the three. One thing worth knowing: the API doesn't promise to return items in the order you asked for them, and it quietly drops any ASIN it can't find (those land in a separate `errors` array). Claude matches on the `asin` field so you don't have to think about it.

### 5. List colour and size variations

> *"What colours does the Echo Show 5 come in?"*

That's `get_variations` - it lists the child products of a parent ASIN, each with its own price.

---

## Getting your API key

This is where most people get stuck, so I'll be straight with you: **the Creators API isn't open to everyone, and there's a sales gate.** Worth knowing before you spend an afternoon on it.

### What you need first

- An **approved Amazon Associates account** for the marketplace you're targeting (a `.com` account won't work against `.co.uk` - the credentials are tied to a region).
- **At least 10 qualifying shipped sales in the trailing 30 days.** This is the one that catches people. If your account dips under 10 sales across any rolling 30-day window, access gets suspended until you're back over the line. New or quiet accounts simply won't have API access yet.
- You have to be the **primary account owner**. Secondary users on an Associates account can't see the Creators API page or generate keys. In my experience this trips up teams more than anything else.
- **Node.js 20 or newer** on the machine running the MCP.

### Where to create the credentials

Sign in to [Associates Central](https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/), open the **Tools** menu, and pick **Creators API** - or just go straight to [affiliate-program.amazon.com/creatorsapi](https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/creatorsapi). Then it's three steps.

**1. Create a Creators API application**

![Associates Central Creators API page with the Create application button](images/creators-api-step-1-create-app.png)

**2. Name it and pick your region**

The region you choose here decides your `AMAZON_CREDENTIAL_VERSION` (NA = `3.1`, EU = `3.2`, FE = `3.3` - full table [below](#credential-version-by-region)). Pick the region that matches the marketplace you actually write for.

![Application creation form showing name, description and region selector](images/creators-api-step-2-application-name.png)

**3. Copy the Credential ID and Secret**

Amazon generates a Login with Amazon (v3.x) credential pair. Copy both - the ID goes in `AMAZON_CLIENT_ID`, the secret in `AMAZON_CLIENT_SECRET`. These never leave your own machine. The MCP server talks to Amazon directly; nothing is sent to Houtini or anyone else.

![Generated credentials screen with Credential ID and Secret fields](images/creators-api-step-3-credentials.png)

> **On older v2.x credentials:** if you set an app up before early 2026 you might have v2.x Cognito credentials lying around. They don't work here. Create a fresh Login with Amazon application to get v3.x keys - the server checks on startup and refuses v2.x with a message telling you exactly this, so you won't be left guessing.

---

## Install

You don't clone anything to use it - `npx` pulls the published package. You just need your five environment variables to hand.

### Claude Desktop

Open your config file:

- **Windows:** `%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json`
- **macOS:** `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "amazon-creators": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@houtini/amazon-creators-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "AMAZON_CLIENT_ID": "amzn1.application-oa2-client.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "AMAZON_CLIENT_SECRET": "amzn1.oa2-cs.v1.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "AMAZON_PARTNER_TAG": "yourtag-20",
        "AMAZON_CREDENTIAL_VERSION": "3.1",
        "AMAZON_MARKETPLACE": "www.amazon.com"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

Restart Claude Desktop, then say *"find me \[whatever you're writing about\] on Amazon"* and you're off.

### Claude Code (CLI)

```bash
claude mcp add \
  -e AMAZON_CLIENT_ID=amzn1.application-oa2-client.xxx \
  -e AMAZON_CLIENT_SECRET=amzn1.oa2-cs.v1.xxx \
  -e AMAZON_PARTNER_TAG=yourtag-20 \
  -e AMAZON_CREDENTIAL_VERSION=3.1 \
  -e AMAZON_MARKETPLACE=www.amazon.com \
  -s user amazon-creators -- npx -y @houtini/amazon-creators-mcp
```

Check it took with `claude mcp get amazon-creators` - you want to see `Status: Connected`.

---

## Environment variables

| Variable | Required | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| `AMAZON_CLIENT_ID` | Yes | `amzn1.application-oa2-client.…` | "Credential Id" from your Creators API app |
| `AMAZON_CLIENT_SECRET` | Yes |