{"slug": "why-ai-assistants-don-t-know-small-businesses-and-how-we-opened-kamchatka-to-mcp", "title": "Why AI assistants don't know small businesses, and how we opened Kamchatka to agents with MCP", "summary": "The team behind Vedar, a Kamchatka travel platform, launched an open MCP server at vedarai.ru/api/mcp that exposes tours, stays, transfers, car rental, volcano status and safety data to AI assistants without requiring an API key. In testing, four models (GPT-4o mini, Claude Haiku 4.5, Qwen3 and DeepSeek V3.1) named Vedar in 0 of 12 answers to a Kamchatka trip-planning question, but once given the MCP server, assistants called the tools in 12 of 12 runs and produced real pricing and permit data in 9 of 12. The server routes booking requests to human operators and uses a two-step, 30-minute confirmation code with explicit consent before any traveler details are sent.", "body_md": "AI assistants are getting good at planning trips. Ask one about Kamchatka, though, and you get Booking, Viator, GetYourGuide and a few generic tour agencies. The small local operators who actually run the volcano climbs and the bear-watching trips mostly don't show up. We build **Vedar** ([vedarai.ru](https://vedarai.ru)), a travel platform for Kamchatka, Russia: tours from local operators, stays, transfers, self-drive car rental, volcano status and route safety. This post covers how we opened all of it to AI agents through an open MCP server, and what we learned along the way.\n\nWe asked four models (GPT-4o mini, Claude Haiku 4.5, Qwen3 and DeepSeek V3.1) the same question in Russian, English and Chinese: \"Which services help plan a trip to Kamchatka?\" None of them named Vedar: 0 out of 12 answers. We repeated the test four times between October 18 and 23, and got 0 out of 12 every time.\n\nThen we gave the same models our MCP server. In 12 of 12 runs the assistant called our tools by itself and built a day-by-day trip. In 9 of 12 the answer contained our real data: prices, permit requirements, rules for areas with bears.\n\nSo the lesson is simple. **Models can already use your service. They just won't find out about it on their own.** Those are two separate problems, and only the first one is solved with code.\n\n**MCP (Model Context Protocol)** is a common \"socket\" that lets an AI assistant plug into an outside service. Without it, the assistant only knows what it read during training. With it, the assistant can ask the service mid-conversation, \"what tours are there in July?\", and get a live answer.\n\n**A2A (Agent2Agent)** is for two agents talking to each other. With MCP, an assistant picks up a tool. With A2A, one agent asks another agent for help, the way you'd ask a colleague. The agent publishes a card listing its skills, accepts a task and returns a result.\n\nEndpoint: `https://vedarai.ru/api/mcp`. It's Streamable HTTP, and you don't need to sign up or get a key. The server is at version 2.7.0, and this is the live `tools/list`:\n\n`get_tours` (catalog with prices), `get_tour_details` (program, what's included, what to bring), `get_tour_availability` (free seats by date).`safety_status` (regional alerts: seismic, volcanic, weather, emergency service), `get_volcano_status` (KVERT aviation codes and seismicity), `get_guardian_context` (hazards and advice for a specific place or route).`get_place_info`, `get_weather`, plus `search` and `fetch` across the whole base.`search_accommodations`, `search_transfers` (whole-vehicle charters: vakhtovka, minibus, jeep), `search_car_rental` (self-drive SUVs, 4x4s, minibuses), `search_gear`.` make_trip_plan` (day by day, with weather and live availability) and `edit_trip_plan`.` create_lead`, `create_booking_request`, `create_stay_request`, `request_charter`, `create_car_rental_request`, plus `get_request_status`.\nHere's a real `get_tours` response from October 24, 2026, when an assistant asked about volcano tours:\n\nAssistants can't book instantly or take payment. Every request goes to a real operator, who confirms it. A traveler's name and phone number only reach the operator with that person's explicit consent.\n\nThe car rental request goes one step further and works in two steps. The first call to `create_car_rental_request` returns a draft and a confirmation code that's valid for 30 minutes. The assistant shows the draft to the person. Only the second call, with the same fields, the code and `consent: true`, actually sends the request. That way an agent can't send someone's details on its own.\n\n**Any MCP client.** Run `npx vedar-mcp` ([npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/vedar-mcp)) to print a ready config:\n\n```\n{\n  \"mcpServers\": {\n    \"vedar\": {\n      \"type\": \"http\",\n      \"url\": \"https://vedarai.ru/api/mcp\"\n    }\n  }\n}\n```\n\n**Cursor / VS Code:** add the block above to your MCP config, or use the one-click install buttons on [vedarai.ru/mcp](https://vedarai.ru/mcp).\n\n**Claude Desktop / claude.ai:** add a custom connector with the URL `https://vedarai.ru/api/mcp`. It doesn't need authentication.\n\n**Claude Code:**\n\n```\nclaude mcp add --transport http vedar https://vedarai.ru/api/mcp\n```\n\n**A2A agents:** the agent card is at [vedarai.ru/.well-known/agent-card.json](https://vedarai.ru/.well-known/agent-card.json). Calls go to `https://vedarai.ru/api/a2a` (JSON-RPC) or `https://vedarai.ru/api/a2a/v1` (REST), using A2A 1.0.\n\nYou'll also find the server on [Glama](https://glama.ai/mcp/connectors/ru.vedarai/mcp), and code examples are [on GitHub](https://github.com/tourhabk-ui/vedar-mcp-examples).\n\nWhen we asked models directly, \"do you know Vedar?\", they often didn't say \"I don't know\". In the latest check, 8 of 12 answers were honest or cautious and 4 of 12 were made up. None was correct. One model called us a \"B2B platform\". Another expanded MCP as \"Master Channel Partner\". Here's what has helped us so far:\n\nYou don't need to be a developer. Connect Vedar to your assistant once, then ask in plain language: \"a 7-day Kamchatka trip in July with a volcano climb\", \"a 4x4 rental in Petropavlovsk\", \"is it safe to go to Avachinsky this week?\". The answers come from live operator data, and nothing gets booked without your say.\n\n`https://vedarai.ru/api/mcp`", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-ai-assistants-don-t-know-small-businesses-and-how-we-opened-kamchatka-to-mcp", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/vedarai/why-ai-assistants-dont-know-small-businesses-and-how-we-opened-kamchatka-to-agents-with-mcp-5gio", "published_at": "2026-10-23 23:25:10+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-23 23:39:52.407550+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "agent-protocols", "ai-tools", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Vedar", "Model Context Protocol", "Agent2Agent", "GPT-4o mini", "Claude Haiku 4.5", "Qwen3", "DeepSeek V3.1", "Kamchatka"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-ai-assistants-don-t-know-small-businesses-and-how-we-opened-kamchatka-to-mcp", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-ai-assistants-don-t-know-small-businesses-and-how-we-opened-kamchatka-to-mcp.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-ai-assistants-don-t-know-small-businesses-and-how-we-opened-kamchatka-to-mcp.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-ai-assistants-don-t-know-small-businesses-and-how-we-opened-kamchatka-to-mcp.jsonld"}}