Frequently Asked Questions: Everything You Need to Know About Seminode

Whether you're new to Seminode or evaluating how our applications can improve your supply chain operations, these frequently asked questions provide insights into our materials networking infrastructure.

What is Seminode?

Seminode helps companies buy and sell materials more efficiently, starting with electronics. It streamlines how partners connect, share supply and demand, and optimize the quote-to-order process so everyone benefits, making transactions faster and easier.

Who is Seminode for?

Seminode is ideal for OEMs, distributors, brokers, and procurement teams looking to improve sourcing, manage inventory, or move excess stock more efficiently. From semiconductor manufacturers to aerospace suppliers, any organization that needs to coordinate materials across complex supply chains can benefit from our networking applications.

How does Seminode work?

Seminode connects companies through infrastructure that enables efficient exchange of materials data. Companies can create their own nodes or connect to others, creating tailored workflows for quoting and order execution while maintaining complete control and security over their own data. The platform facilitates structured information exchange using industry standards, making materials data more discoverable and actionable across your trusted network.

What kind of data can I exchange or consume?

You can exchange and consume supply signals such as excess inventory, shortage demand, cost-saving opportunities, quotes, orders, and more. Seminode enables your internal systems to seamlessly parse, respond, and automate workflows based on your data and the partners you trust. This improves quality while reducing manual work across procurement, inventory management, and sales processes.

Is Seminode easy to integrate with my existing systems?

Yes. Seminode offers APIs that make it simple to integrate with ERPs, CRMs, procurement tools, or inventory management platforms. Build out your own workflows and turn segregated partner information and RFQs into orders programmatically. Our upload tools help clean and standardize your data, while our AI-powered search makes it easy to find what you need without complex query syntax.

Can I control who sees my data?

Absolutely. You choose which nodes to post to and can control access based on partners, categories, or use cases. Designed to meet strict security compliance needs, Seminode safeguards the confidentiality critical to competitive markets. Granular permissions allow you to grant read-only access to some partners, full access to trusted vendors, or restrict access completely.

What are the benefits of using Seminode?

Seminode replaces manual data exchanges over emails and spreadsheets, modernizing a decades-old approach still common across manufacturing and distribution verticals. It lets you build optimized sourcing and selling pipelines all in one place. This improves sales and procurement by making materials more actionable, while also enabling better collaboration, and responsiveness in a volatile supply chain environment.

Is there a cost to get started?

No, you can get started for free by building out your company, connecting to partners, and using our core tools without any cost. This allows you to explore the platform's capabilities and establish your initial network connections before committing to any paid features.

How is Seminode different from traditional procurement platforms?

Traditional procurement platforms lock you into portals or proprietary APIs. Seminode is different, it is infrastructure built around an open protocol designed for composability and secure information exchange. “Open” here doesn’t mean your data is public; it means you’re not confined to a single vendor’s system. You choose which partners to connect with, and your information only flows where you authorize it. This gives you the flexibility to build on top of Seminode, integrate it with your own systems, and adapt as your business evolves without being trapped in someone else’s closed marketplace.

What makes Seminode's protocol based approach unique?

Our infrastructure is built on the Nostr protocol, creating a shared standard that allows systems to communicate in a consistent, predictable way. Unlike proprietary platforms, protocols unlock scale by defining rules of communication rather than controlling who can participate. This creates networks where anyone can innovate and interoperate without relying on a central authority, similar to how the internet operates with protocols like HTTP and SMTP.

How quickly can I get up and running?

You can set up your company’s first node in under 60 seconds. Getting started is as simple as creating an account, creating listings on your nodes, and granting trusted partners access to quote on the information you share. Our upload tools automatically clean and standardize your material data, making it network ready in minutes. And for partners not yet on Seminode, we’re building an email bridge that allows seamless exchange of listings, quotes, and orders through their existing email workflows so you can realize value right away.

How does Seminode leverage AI for procurement and sales?

Seminode serves as AI infrastructure for procurement and sales teams, enabling intelligent actions across sourcing, quoting, and excess disposition workflows. We're actively developing MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools that will enable both sellers and buyers to leverage AI agents for efficient quoting, inventory optimization, and market analysis. This transforms procurement from a manual process into an intelligent, responsive system that can identify opportunities and execute transactions at speed.

What ongoing support and development can I expect?

We’re developing SDK functionality, expanding our web application capabilities, and building an email integration bridge to connect seamlessly with existing workflows. If there’s something specific you’d like supported, you can reach out to our team or open a feature request. Our goal is to provide the infrastructure that enables your supply chain to operate at the speed and scale required to make you and your partners successful.

Ready to improve your supply chain operations? Seminode's infrastructure is designed to help manufacturers, distributors, and procurement teams build the connected, efficient networks that tomorrow's hardware economy requires.