How to submit an MCP server to Kilo Marketplace

An MCP server enters Kilo's marketplace as a folder with a single file in it, mcps/<id>/MCP.yaml. The file is both the listing and the install recipe: it holds the JSON config a Kilo user will paste, with a placeholder for every secret^[1]. The marketplace also lists skills, agents and plugins, and the contributing guide covers those at more length than it covers MCP servers, so read the MCP section and no further^[2].

One folder, one file

id: weather
name: Weather
description: Forecasts and alerts for any city.
author: example-user
url: https://github.com/example-user/weather-mcp
category: search
prerequisites:
  - A Weather API key
content:
  - name: NPX
    prerequisites:
      - Node.js
    content: |
      {
        "command": "npx",
        "args": ["-y", "weather-mcp"],
        "env": { "WEATHER_API_KEY": "{{WEATHER_API_KEY}}" }
      }
parameters:
  - name: Weather API Key
    key: WEATHER_API_KEY
    placeholder: your_api_key_here

The folder name is lowercase with hyphens and matches the id^[1]. An existing entry is the easiest model to copy, since it shows two install options side by side^[4].

The properties

The guide asks for a single best category and says to propose a new one only when several servers share a purpose that none of the seven fits^[1].

A command or an address

A local server's content is a command with arguments and an env block. A remote one is a Streamable HTTP address, with headers if it needs a token. Give several install options when you can, such as NPX, Docker and UVX, each with its own prerequisites^[1].

content: |
  {
    "type": "streamable-http",
    "url": "https://weather.example.com/mcp",
    "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer {{API_TOKEN}}" }
  }

Credentials are always a placeholder such as {{API_TOKEN}}, listed under parameters, never a real value. Handling authentication through environment variables is one of the guide's four requirements for an MCP server^[1].

Run the generator before you push

The catalog is generated from the folders. The guide's validation steps are run from bin/: install with pnpm, run the MCP marketplace generator, then the tests and the MCP type check^[1]. Test the real endpoint in a client as well, since the generator only reads your YAML.

What gets sent back

• Editing the generated catalog. mcps/marketplace.yaml sits beside the folders and is produced by the generator. The guide says not to edit generated catalogs by hand^[1][3].
• An id that is not lowercase kebab-case, or that differs from its folder name; the template uses the same name for both. With companion skills, the id must also avoid reserved device names and names such as constructor and prototype^[1].
• A category outside the seven.
• A secret written into the file. Use the placeholder and a parameter.

Doing it by hand

1. Fork the repository and make mcps/your-id/.
2. Write MCP.yaml from the example above, with one install option per way to run the server.
3. Run the generator and tests from bin/.
4. Open a pull request. The guide says contributions are accepted through pull requests.

Current status, 1 Oct 2026

The mcps folder held 128 server folders on this date, plus the generated marketplace.yaml^[3]. On 2 Oct 2026 the repository had 163 open pull requests^[5].