Show HN: Open-Source API for Asynchronous Tasks Using Agents
Meerkat Agents is an open-source API that uses agents to automate asynchronous tasks, originally built to help a logistics team monitor carrier delivery links (DHL, FedEx, DPD) across different countries without manual API integrations. The tool checks status changes and notifies customers automatically.
Background
- Meerkat Agents is an open-source API that automates repetitive web-based tasks — in this case, monitoring package tracking pages (DHL, FedEx, DPD) and notifying customers when status changes.
- The core idea: instead of building custom API integrations with each logistics carrier, the tool acts like a "smart agent" that visits carrier websites and checks tracking statuses the same way a human would.
- "Open-source API" means the code is publicly available for anyone to use, modify, or self-host, rather than being a closed proprietary service.
- This is a Show HN (Hacker News) post — a common format where makers present their side projects to the tech community for feedback.
- The problem it solves is common in logistics ops: when you operate in many countries, each with different carriers, integrating with every carrier's API is expensive and slow. Manual checking of tracking links is tedious and error-prone.