# Carena Auctions

> Carena (https://auctions.autocarena.com) lets anyone in the US buy cars from Copart, IAAI and ADESA salvage and clean-title auctions without a dealer license. Browse without an account. To bid, a person creates a free account, wires money to the bank details in their account, and bids up to their balance. Carena bids on their behalf at the auction.

## How bidding works
- Wallet: money arrives only by wire (no ACH) from the account holder's bank to the wire details shown in their account. Open bids hold money 1:1; their total can never exceed the balance.
- Bids: a max bid (whole dollars, above the current bid) or Buy Now at the listed price. Status goes open → placed (entered at the auction) → won or lost.
- Home state: a person cannot buy a vehicle located in the same state as their address, because Carena does not hold a dealer license there and can only buy from out-of-state auctions on their behalf. Signed-in vehicle results show inYourState.
- Wins: the final price plus the auction's fees plus Carena's flat $100 fee is taken from the wallet. Carena adds $100 to what it pays the auction; no percentage.
- Shipping: quoted after the win (quote pending → quoted → scheduled → picked up → delivered). The quote is also taken from the wallet. Transport typically starts around $800 and rises with distance to the delivery address.
- Owing money: if a win or its shipping takes the wallet below zero, the person must wire the amount owed (wallet.owed) to their wire details. Agents can't add funds; tell the person what to wire.
- Abandonment: a won vehicle that isn't paid for (price, fees or shipping) goes back to the auction, and the person owes an abandonment fee of $600 or 10% of the vehicle's price, whichever is greater.
- Withdraw: the available balance (not held by bids) goes back to the account holder's bank.

## For AI agents
- Search and vehicle details need no account.
- Account actions act for a signed-in account holder, two ways:
  - OAuth (chat apps such as Claude and ChatGPT): add https://auctions.autocarena.com/mcp as a connector. The app registers itself, and the person logs in or signs up on our consent page and chooses what to allow. Discovery: https://auctions.autocarena.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource and https://auctions.autocarena.com/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server (authorization code + PKCE S256, dynamic client registration).
  - Personal API key (Claude Code, Cursor, scripts): the person creates one under Account → AI agents; send it as `Authorization: Bearer ca_...`.
- Connected apps (OAuth) never move money: prepare_bid and prepare_withdrawal return a link where the person confirms the bid or withdrawal on Carena. "read" is always allowed; "bid" lets an app change the watchlist.
- Personal API keys can also bid through POST /bids ("bid") and withdraw ("withdraw", off unless the person turns it on). Only a person can create an account, set their name and address, or create keys.
- Always confirm the vehicle and amount with the person before preparing or placing a bid.

## Tools
- [MCP server](https://auctions.autocarena.com/mcp): Streamable HTTP, sign-in required. Tools: search_vehicles (filters for make, model, year, mileage, price, damage, title, condition, fuel, drive, color, distance from a ZIP and more, plus sorting), find_vehicle, get_vehicle, estimate_cost, prepare_bid (returns a confirm link), get_account, prepare_withdrawal (returns a confirm link), add_to_watchlist, remove_from_watchlist. Without an account, https://auctions.autocarena.com/mcp/public offers the search, vehicle and prepare_bid tools.
- [OpenAPI](https://auctions.autocarena.com/openapi.json): REST API under https://auctions.autocarena.com/api/public-auction (GET /cars, /cars/search, /cars/{lotId}; GET /me; POST /bids and POST /withdraw with a personal API key only; POST/DELETE /me/watchlist). Send an Idempotency-Key header with POST /bids.

## Pages
- [Home](https://auctions.autocarena.com/)
- [Browse by make, model, state and type](https://auctions.autocarena.com/cars): category pages with live counts, typical prices, a worked total cost and a FAQ, e.g. https://auctions.autocarena.com/cars/honda/civic, https://auctions.autocarena.com/cars/state/texas, https://auctions.autocarena.com/cars/type/suv, https://auctions.autocarena.com/cars/title/salvage, https://auctions.autocarena.com/cars/buy-now. Add .md to any of them for markdown.
- [Guides](https://auctions.autocarena.com/guides): how buying, fees, titles, shipping, the wallet and AI agents work. Add .md for markdown.
- [Everything in one file](https://auctions.autocarena.com/llms-full.txt): this guide plus every guide in full.
- [Search vehicles](https://auctions.autocarena.com/search): filters are URL parameters, e.g. https://auctions.autocarena.com/search?searchQuery=honda%20civic or https://auctions.autocarena.com/search?bodyType=5 (SUVs).
- Vehicle page: https://auctions.autocarena.com/lot/{lotId}?site={site}
- Account (signed in): https://auctions.autocarena.com/account/bids, /account/watchlist, /account/won, /account/transport, /account/wallet, /account/api-keys, /account/settings
- [Sitemap](https://auctions.autocarena.com/sitemap.xml)