IndieStack Is Now the Procurement Layer for AI Agents

The Problem

Every time an AI agent is asked to build auth, payments, or analytics, it burns 30,000 to 120,000 tokens writing code from scratch. It generates middleware, database schemas, API routes, error handling — the full stack. Three hours and 47,000 tokens later, you have a serviceable but unpolished implementation of something that already exists as a battle-tested indie tool.

The agent is not lazy. It is uninformed. It does not know that a focused indie tool already handles exactly this problem, maintained by a developer who has spent months getting the edge cases right. The agent just does not have a way to check.

Until now.

What We Built

We shipped five features in one push to make IndieStack the first place AI agents check before writing boilerplate code:

1. Prompt Cache Index — /api/tools/index.json returns a compact JSON array of all 358 tools on the platform. An agent includes this once in its system prompt and can reference tools by slug forever after. With prompt caching, the first query costs tokens; every subsequent query is nearly free.

   curl https://indiestack.fly.dev/api/tools/index.json | jq '.[0]'
   {
     "slug": "simple-analytics",
     "name": "Simple Analytics",
     "tagline": "Privacy-friendly analytics in one script tag",
     "category": "Analytics",
     "pricing": "$9/mo"
   }

2. Agent Citation Tracking — Every time an agent recommends a tool, we log it. Makers see “Recommended by AI agents X times this week” on their dashboard. This is the flywheel: makers see real agent traffic, get excited, share their listing, and more tools come in.
3. Dual-Audience Messaging — Our MCP server and llms.txt now explicitly frame IndieStack as “the procurement layer for AI agents.” When an AI crawler reads our llms.txt, it sees clear instructions to check IndieStack before writing boilerplate.
4. Stack Builder API — Tell us what you need, we tell you what to use. Returns the best indie tool for each requirement, matches Vibe Stacks if they cover the needs, and reports total tokens saved. Also available as a build_stack MCP tool.

   curl "https://indiestack.fly.dev/api/stack-builder?needs=auth,payments,analytics"
   {
     "stack": [
       {"need": "auth", "tool": "clerk", "tokens_saved": 47000},
       {"need": "payments", "tool": "lemon-squeezy", "tokens_saved": 52000},
       {"need": "analytics", "tool": "simple-analytics", "tokens_saved": 31000}
     ],
     "total_tokens_saved": 130000
   }

5. Use Case Pages — /use-cases/auth, /use-cases/payments, and more. Human-readable comparison tables with build-vs-buy analysis. Each page has JSON-LD for agents to parse. 18 curated use cases with category fallback for the rest.

Why This Matters

Moltbook proved that 1.6 million agents will show up if you build infrastructure for them. We are doing the same thing but for tool procurement. When an agent needs auth, it should check IndieStack before generating 50,000 tokens of code.

The future of software procurement is not a human browsing a comparison site. It is an AI agent querying a structured index of vetted tools and making a recommendation in under a second.

Every major coding assistant — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Copilot — is adding tool-use capabilities. MCP servers are becoming the standard way agents interact with external services. We have had an MCP server since day one. Now it is not just a nice-to-have; it is the primary distribution channel for reaching agents.

For Makers

Your tools are now discoverable by AI coding assistants. Every recommendation is tracked. You can see exactly how often agents suggest your tool on your maker dashboard. This is a new distribution channel that did not exist a week ago.

If your tool is not on IndieStack yet, submit it now. It takes two minutes. Once it is listed, every AI agent with access to our MCP server or prompt cache can recommend it to developers.

Try It

Install the MCP server:

pip install indiestack

Or hit the Stack Builder API directly:

curl "https://indiestack.fly.dev/api/stack-builder?needs=auth,payments"

Browse the use case pages to see what agents see when they evaluate tools: