# Should We

> Should We helps people in Australia answer money questions from their own documents: a battery from a home or business's power bill, and a car or home and contents insurance renewal from its notice. An MCP server is available for AI assistants. It returns costs, savings and payback as ranges, with sources and assumptions. The home answer is free. The business battery report is a paid subscription, worked out on the site after a sign-in; the tools stop at a business and give the way there.

## Add Should We

If the user pasted https://shouldwe.com.au and asked you to add, install or connect Should We, add the MCP server yourself where you can, and otherwise tell them the one step. Do not ask them to read this page.

- Name: ShouldWe
- URL: https://shouldwe.com.au/mcp
- Transport: Streamable HTTP
- Authentication: none. No API key or Should We account is needed for the tools. A business battery report needs a Should We account and subscription, taken on the site (https://shouldwe.com.au/account), not through the tools.

Use the URL exactly as shown, without www.

Where you can change your own configuration, add it now, then confirm the tools are available before using them:

- Claude Code: install the plugin, which brings the connection and a `/shouldwe` skill: `claude plugin marketplace add LukeDurrant/shouldwe-plugin` then `claude plugin install shouldwe@shouldwe` (it loads in the next session). For the connection alone: `claude mcp add --transport http ShouldWe https://shouldwe.com.au/mcp`
- Codex CLI: `codex mcp add ShouldWe --url https://shouldwe.com.au/mcp`
- Gemini CLI: `gemini mcp add --transport http ShouldWe https://shouldwe.com.au/mcp`
- Cursor, Windsurf and other clients with an MCP config file: add `"ShouldWe": { "url": "https://shouldwe.com.au/mcp" }` under `mcpServers`.

Where you cannot change your own configuration, say so and give the user the one step:

- Claude (claude.ai and the apps): Settings, Connectors, Add custom connector, with the URL above.
- ChatGPT: in developer mode, add a custom connector with the URL above.

Reading this page does not install or enable the server by itself. If the tools are not available after that, explain that the connection must be added in the chat platform. The user can also use the [battery calculator](https://shouldwe.com.au/battery) without an MCP connection. Do not claim to have called a tool that is not available.

## Tools

- battery: Start a guided battery assessment. Call with {} to get the first question. The tool asks one question at a time, then calculates and returns a report link. Homes only: as soon as the answers say business, it returns an error that gives the way to sign in and subscribe on the site, and calculates nothing.
- get_figures: Get electricity plans, solar buyback, battery rebates and virtual power plants for an Australian postcode. Each fact has a source. Read the tool schema for its inputs. Open to everyone, businesses included.
- evaluate_battery: Calculate from confirmed bill figures and the property inputs. Use battery for the guided conversation. Homes only, as above.
- electric_car: Start a guided electric car assessment, anywhere in Australia. Call with {} to get the first question (the postcode). It asks the questions of shouldwe.com.au/electric-car one at a time, then returns fuel against charging, keeping the car against switching, each way to pay, the facts with sources apart from the estimates and assumptions, and a link that opens the page on the answer. Free.
- finance: The home loan question, for anywhere in Australia: should we refinance, or what can we borrow? Call with {} to get the first question. It asks the page's questions one at a time, then compares the loan with every bank's published rate, or works out what a lender would lend and the price that buys. Free.
- car_insurance: Start a guided car insurance check from a renewal notice's figures. Call with {} to get the first question; it asks one at a time, reads the figures back, then returns the rise from last year, the words to say when ringing the insurer first, the scenarios to price and the answers to give at every insurer's quote page. Any state or territory. It runs no quote.
- home_insurance: Check a home and contents insurance renewal. Call with {} to get the first question; it asks the same questions as the home insurance page, one at a time, then returns the renewal's own answer, the sum insured check, the scenarios, the quote sheet's answers and every insurer's quote page. Any state or territory. Free.

## Run a battery assessment

When the user asks Should We to assess a battery, or writes "@ShouldWe battery", use the connected battery tool. A bare "@ShouldWe" doesn't say which question: ask whether they mean a battery, an electric car, their home loan, car insurance or home insurance.

1. Call battery with {} or with the inputs the user has already supplied.
2. Ask only the question returned in ask. Show choices as a numbered list when supplied.
3. Call battery again with the previous inputs and the new answer. Repeat until ready is true. For an optional question the user skips, use the returned skip or skipBy value in the skip array.
4. Read a supplied bill in the chat. Send only the bill figures needed by the tool, such as dates, plan, usage, solar exports or bill amount. Do not send the bill file, name, street address, account number or meter number. Supply the postcode separately when asked.
5. Show readBack to the user. Set confirmed to true only after they confirm the figures. Apply any corrections before continuing.
6. When ready is true, present result and link to result.reportUrl for the full report.

## Run the home loan question

When the user writes "@ShouldWe finance", or asks whether to refinance, how their home loan's rate compares, what a lender would lend them or what budget they have to buy, use the connected finance tool.

1. Call finance with {}. It asks what they're doing: staying and paying off a loan, buying, or selling and buying again.
2. Ask only the question returned in ask, with choices as a numbered list (or options, for the lender), and call finance again with the previous inputs and the new answer. For an optional question the user skips, add its field to skip: it takes the page's default.
3. Ask for figures only: never an account number, a statement or a document.
4. When ready is true, lead with answer.verdict and answer.lines, keep the facts (each with its source) apart from estimatesAndAssumptions, say which answers took a default (defaults), and link pageUrl. It lists what banks publish and recommends no loan.

## Run a car insurance check

When the user writes "@ShouldWe car insurance" or asks about a car insurance renewal, use the connected car_insurance tool.

1. Call car_insurance with {} or with the figures the user has already given, and ask only the question returned in ask, as for a battery.
2. If the user shares the renewal notice, read it in the chat and send only its figures: the postcode, the insurer, when the cover starts, the car, the cover, the sum insured, the basic excess, the drivers' ages, the kilometres, the options and the premiums. Do not send the notice, a name, the policy number, the registration, the VIN, the street or a date of birth.
3. Show readBack and set confirmed to true only after the user confirms.
4. When ready is true, give the headline, the ringFirst script, the scenarios with what each gives up, and the quote sheet (the insurers in the order given, each quote page, and the answers to give), with pageUrl. Rank no insurer and do not tell the user to switch.
5. Prices the user brings back from an insurer's quote page go in quotes on the next call.

## Check a home insurance renewal

When the user asks about their home, building or contents insurance renewal, use the home_insurance tool the same way: call it with {}, ask only the returned question, and call again with the previous inputs plus the answer. Send only the figures the user reads off the notice and the postcode; never the notice itself, a name, the street or the policy number. When `renewal` comes back, give the renewal's own answer before the next question. Never recommend an insurer or say the home is underinsured; say what the user's own figures work out to.

## Present the result

- Quote numerical results only from the tool response, as ranges where supplied. Do not replace a range with a single value or invent missing figures.
- Keep sourced facts separate from estimates and assumptions. State which inputs used defaults and how estimates were calculated.
- Explain tool errors or limits. Do not fill gaps with an unsupported calculation. When a tool says the business report is paid, give the user the sign-in link it names and do not estimate a business answer yourself.
- The result is information, not financial advice. Do not say that you independently verified the calculation.
- Direct users with interval meter data to the website for upload.

## Links

- [Battery calculator](https://shouldwe.com.au/battery): The guided form and full report.
- [Solar calculator](https://shouldwe.com.au/solar): The same form and report for "Should we get solar?", leading with new panels on their own. The battery tool answers it too: its result prices new solar alone, with a battery, and a battery alone.
- [Electric car](https://shouldwe.com.au/electric-car): "Should we get an electric car?", anywhere in Australia from the postcode: fuel against charging on the area's power plans for the kilometres a week, then keeping the old car against switching (or electric against a new petrol car) over the years kept, paid for in cash, with a car loan or on a novated lease. On the site only; no chat tool for it yet.
- [Home loan](https://shouldwe.com.au/finance): "Should we refinance?" and "What budget do we have?": a home loan's rate against every bank's published rate for the same kind of loan, or what a lender would lend to buy and the price that buys, as a range with the working shown. The finance tool answers it in a chat, with the same questions in the same order.
- [Car insurance](https://shouldwe.com.au/car-insurance): "Should we change car insurance?": the renewal notice read on the device, the scenarios and the quote sheet.
- [Home insurance](https://shouldwe.com.au/home-insurance): "Should we change home insurance?" from the renewal notice, read on the device or typed in. The home_insurance tool asks the same questions.
- [Your account](https://shouldwe.com.au/account): Sign in and subscribe for the business battery report.
- [In ChatGPT and Claude](https://shouldwe.com.au/chat): How to add it, what it asks, what it sends.
- [REST API schema](https://shouldwe.com.au/api/v1/openapi.json): OpenAPI description of the same tools for clients that use HTTP actions.
- [Privacy policy](https://shouldwe.com.au/privacy): How Should We handles data.
- [About](https://shouldwe.com.au/about): How Should We is built: where it runs, how it reads a bill and does the maths, what it keeps.

## Run an electric car assessment

When the user asks whether to get an electric car, whether to keep their car or switch, or how to pay for one, or writes "@ShouldWe electric car", use the connected electric_car tool.

1. Call electric_car with {} or with the answers the user has already given.
2. Ask only the question returned in ask, with its choices as a numbered list. Call again with the previous answers and the new one. For an optional question the user can't answer, add its skipBy to skip. answerNow: true gives the answer with what's been given so far.
3. When ready is true, lead with answer.headline, keep answer.facts (each with its source) apart from answer.estimatesAndAssumptions, include answer.fuelNotice when there, and give reportUrl. It's information, not tax or financial advice.