How to submit an MCP server to Official MCP Registry

The official registry has no form and no reviewer in the route. You write a server.json, prove you own the package it points to, sign in with the mcp-publisher tool, and publish^[1]. It stores metadata only, and the packages stay on npm, PyPI, Docker Hub or wherever you put them^[7]. Most of the work is getting the name and the proof to agree.

A server.json that validates

Three fields are required: name, description and version. The schema caps the description at 100 characters and requires the name to look like namespace/server^[8]. This is the quickstart's file after its edit^[1]:

{
  "$schema": "https://static.modelcontextprotocol.io/schemas/2025-12-11/server.schema.json",
  "name": "io.github.my-username/weather",
  "description": "An MCP server for weather information.",
  "repository": {
    "url": "https://github.com/my-username/mcp-weather-server",
    "source": "github"
  },
  "version": "1.0.1",
  "packages": [
    {
      "registryType": "npm",
      "identifier": "@my-username/mcp-weather-server",
      "version": "1.0.1",
      "transport": { "type": "stdio" }
    }
  ]
}

For a hosted server, replace packages with a remotes entry holding type (streamable-http is the one to use) and a public url^[4].

Your namespace decides how you sign in

Registry docs, read 1 Oct 2026^[2]

Proof you own the package

1 Oct 2026^[3][4]. Publish the package version first: the registry hosts metadata only, and the quickstart publishes the package before the server.

Sign in and publish

mcp-publisher init
mcp-publisher login github
mcp-publisher publish

curl "https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0.1/servers?search=io.github.my-username/weather"

login github prints a code and the page github.com/login/device; you enter the code there yourself^[2]. Every change after that needs a new version. Published metadata is immutable, and there is no way to unpublish today^[6][5]. Version ranges such as ^1.2.3 or 1.x are refused.

Errors people hit

• "Registry validation failed for package": the proof is missing from the published version. Add mcpName or the README line, publish the package again, then retry^[1].
• "You do not have permission to publish this server": your sign-in method and the name's namespace do not match^[1]. For an organisation namespace a user reported a 403 as an organisation owner, and a maintainer called it a bug on the registry's side^[11].
• "cannot publish duplicate version". In one reported case the cause was a server.json that still said the old version, and the fix was to put the new one in it^[9].
• "Expected mcpName X, got x": a casing mismatch between the organisation name and the namespace. This report was still open on 1 Oct 2026^[10].
• "Invalid or expired Registry JWT token": run mcp-publisher login github again^[1].

Error: publish failed: server returned status 400:
{"title":"Bad Request","status":400,"detail":"Failed to publish server",
 "errors":[{"message":"invalid version: cannot publish duplicate version"}]}

By hand or with help

Everything above is the by-hand route: three commands and one approval in your browser. The registry expects downstream aggregators to pull from it^[7], and two of them have their own pages: PulseMCP and the GitHub MCP Registry.

Current status, 1 Oct 2026

The registry's own pages still call it a preview, where breaking changes or data resets may occur^[7]. The latest release of the registry software was v1.8.1, published 6 Aug 2026^[12].