Type what you need. The router matches it against the fleet's need categories and returns the cheapest endpoint that answers it — priced live from the fleet catalogue at request time, never from a stored price list. Where one endpoint plausibly cannot cover the whole need (for example search the web and extract the page content), it returns the cheapest 2-step combo with per-step prices and the combined paid total. Agents chain small composable reads rather than buying bundles — this page prices that chain honestly. Free, read-only, nothing is charged.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Match | Your text is matched deterministically against the router's keyword → category map (the categories are built from the clinic's existing 57-endpoint catalogue). Same text, same answer. |
| 2. Price live | Every price shown comes from the live catalogue at the moment of the request — the same source as the price comparison table. No price on this page is hardcoded. |
| 3. Combo when needed | If the need has two halves no single endpoint covers, the cheapest slug of each half is chained and the totals are added up for you. |
| 4. No match = honest | If nothing matches, you get matched: false, the list of categories the router does know, and links to endpoint search and price-compare. No endpoint or price is ever invented. |
Trial-response pilot: trial responses from the 3 r755 pilot endpoints (chain, markdown, stocks) now also carry a compact _cheapest_route field pointing at the router. The other endpoints were not patched.
GET https://api.mekongtradeintel.com/clinic/cheapest-answer?need=<free text>
(alias: ?q=<free text>)
-> { ok, matched, need,
category: { id, label },
cheapest_single: { slug, url, price_usd, trial_url, ... },
runner_up: { slug, price_usd, ... } | null,
cheapest_combo: { steps: [ {step, slug, price_usd}, ... ],
total_usd } | null,
recommendation: "single" | "combo",
total_usd, next_step }
No need returns a 200 info object with usage, the categories covered (with their cheapest live prices) and example needs.
Price comparison — every endpoint's live price in one table · Buyer dashboard — everything the fleet knows about your wallet · Repeat-query discount — same query within 24h at half price · Request an endpoint — need something the fleet doesn't have?