> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.thingery.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quickstart

> Search Thingery in a minute, then publish your first listing.

Hosted and self-hosted Thingery expose the **same MCP tools** but **not the same data**. Listings you create on `thingery.dev` are visible to everyone; listings on your own instance live only in your database.

| Mode | Endpoint | Data | Best for |
| - | - | - | - |
| **Hosted** | `https://thingery.dev/mcp` | The shared public marketplace | A first result in under a minute, with nothing to install |
| **Self-hosted** | Your own `/mcp`, or stdio | Your Postgres, your data | Private deployments and full control |

This page uses the hosted server. To run your own, see [Self-hosting](https://docs.thingery.dev/self-hosting/install.md).

**1. Search, with no account**

The server speaks JSON-RPC over HTTP, so curl is enough:

```bash theme={null}
curl -s https://thingery.dev/mcp \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -H 'accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call",
       "params":{"name":"search_items","arguments":{"q":"Air Max"}}}'
```

Responses come back as Server-Sent Events: the JSON-RPC result is on the `data:` line.

**2. Connect your assistant**

Add Thingery to your client and sign in when it asks:

**3. Publish a listing**

Ask your assistant to sell something and share a photo. It calls `describe_category`, then `create_listing`, then `add_item_image`. **The first photo publishes the listing**; without one it stays hidden. See [Selling](https://docs.thingery.dev/guides/selling.md).

## Run the whole flow from a script

The [quickstart script](https://github.com/thingery/thingery/tree/main/examples/quickstart) is one file with no dependencies, for Node 18 or newer. It searches, publishes a demo listing with a photo, fetches its public page, and deletes the listing again. It takes about three minutes, signup included. Get an API key first (see [Authentication](https://docs.thingery.dev/authentication.md)):

```bash theme={null}
curl -L -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/thingery/thingery/main/examples/quickstart/quickstart.mjs
export THINGERY_API_KEY=thg_YOUR_KEY
node quickstart.mjs
```

Without a key it runs only the public search steps. Pass `--keep` to keep the demo listing, and set `MCP_URL=http://localhost:3000/mcp` to run it against your own server.


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.