Connect Before the Lot to your AI
Flip the script on the dealership's four-square. The salesperson's worksheet puts price, trade-in, down payment and monthly payment on one sheet, so a give in one box can be taken back in another. Add Before the Lot once, and your assistant pulls them apart: it works out the out-the-door price, checks the dealer's numbers against your state's rules, and keeps the trade-in and the loan separate.
Free · No account · No personal information
The connector's address
Claude Every plan, Free included
- Choose Connect to Claude. Sign in to Claude if it asks.
- Check the name says Before the Lot, then choose Add.
- In a chat: +, then Connectors, then switch Before the Lot on.
- Ask about your deal. Choose Allow when Claude asks to use a tool.
Free plan, phones and adding by hand
- A Free account has room for one custom connector. If another one is using it, remove that one under Customize, then Connectors, or use the Skill.
- Team or Enterprise: an owner adds it for the organization first.
- On a phone, open the link in a browser, not the Claude app. The app picks it up once added.
- No sign-in step after Add: the connector has no accounts. Claude’s option to allow every time stops it asking.
- By hand: Customize, then Connectors, then + Add, then Add custom connector. Name it Before the Lot and paste
https://beforethelot.com/mcp.
No connector slot free? The Skill
A download that teaches Claude the method itself. It uses no connector slot.
Download the Skill How to add it
What’s in it
- The seven stages, the guides, the email templates and the state rules table.
- It works alongside the connector when both are on.
- Claude needs Code execution and file creation on, under Settings, then Capabilities.
ChatGPT Free and Plus: start a chat
Free and Plus can’t add custom connectors. This opens a chat with a first message that reads the method:
Or copy the first message into any assistant
On Business, Enterprise or Edu
- On chatgpt.com (not the app): Plugins, then +, then Add custom MCP server. An admin may first allow custom connectors for the workspace.
- Name it Before the Lot, paste
https://beforethelot.com/mcp, choose No authentication. - Accept the notice and create it. Then pick it in a new chat.
- Pro: OpenAI says Pro accounts can add connectors whose tools only read, which all of Before the Lot’s do. Not yet tried on Pro.
- A listing in ChatGPT’s directory is planned, which would let Free and Plus add it too. No date yet.
- OpenAI’s menus change often: Developer mode and MCP apps in ChatGPT has the current steps.
Gemini US, 18+, personal accounts
- In a browser, open gemini.google.com/customize/connectors (or Settings, then Connected Apps).
- Choose + Custom (or Add a custom app), paste
https://beforethelot.com/mcp, then Next. - In a chat, type @, pick Before the Lot, and ask your question.
Who can add it
- People in the US, 18 or older, on a personal Google account with Keep Activity on.
- Not on work or school accounts.
- Not yet tested with Before the Lot.
Other assistants
Vibe (formerly Le Chat, by Mistral) Free plan
On chat.mistral.ai: Connectors, then + Add Connector, then Custom MCP Connector. Name it BeforetheLot (no spaces), paste https://beforethelot.com/mcp and choose Connect.
Perplexity Paid plans
Plugins, then Add custom, then Connector, then Add MCP connector, then Remote. Name it Before the Lot, paste https://beforethelot.com/mcp, choose None for authentication, then Add.
Claude Code In a terminal
Run claude mcp add --transport http before-the-lot https://beforethelot.com/mcp.
Things to ask
- “Here's the quote my dealer emailed me. I'm in Ohio. What does Before the Lot make of it?”
- “Use Before the Lot: what out-the-door price does $550 a month support over 60 months at 6.2%?”
- “Walk me through the Before the Lot method for a used RAV4 with a trade-in.”
Privacy
- No accounts. Nothing you send is stored: the numbers and quote text are used for the answer, then dropped.
- No tool needs your name, address, income or credit score. Local tax takes a city or county name, not an address.
- Lines in a pasted quote that look like contact details are removed before it is read.
- Each tool call adds one usage count, with the tool’s name only.
- Your assistant’s provider handles the conversation under its own terms.
The details are in our privacy policy.