# Model Context Protocol Registry The Model Context Protocol Registry is the official, community-driven registry service for [[Model Context Protocol (MCP)]] servers, essentially an app store for MCP servers. It gives MCP clients a curated, queryable list of available servers instead of everyone managing connections by hand. The reference instance runs at `registry.modelcontextprotocol.io`. ## How it works - A server is described by a `server.json` file; you publish it with a CLI - Publisher identity is verified via GitHub OAuth, GitHub OIDC (for Actions), or DNS / HTTP domain-ownership checks - Namespaces encode ownership: `io.github.<user>/<name>` (GitHub auth) or `me.<domain>/<name>` (domain proof) - It is meant to be a base layer: other registries and marketplaces build on top of it and mirror its data (the registry specification it defines is what those downstream catalogs respect) ## Discovery and governance A registry is not only for discovery. It is also a control point for enforcing rules. An organization can point a client at a specific registry and restrict usage to the servers it lists. For example, [[GitHub Copilot]] can be pointed at an MCP registry to allowlist MCP servers, so developers can only use approved ones. Downstream platforms that respect the registry specification include [[Azure API Center]] and the [[MCP Gateway Registry]]. ## Status - Launched in preview September 2025; entered an API freeze (v0.1) in October 2025 for stability ahead of GA - Built in Go with PostgreSQL; open source - Governed by a Registry Working Group with members from PulseMCP, Stacklok, TeamSpark, and Ravenmail ## References - https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry - https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/tree/main/docs - https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/ ## Related - [[Model Context Protocol (MCP)]] - [[Azure API Center]] - [[MCP Gateway Registry]] - [[Docker MCP Catalog]] - [[GitHub Copilot]] - [[AI Agents]] - [[Agentic Resource Discovery Specification (ARD)]]