Submit to the Docker MCP Catalog: what to expect

By Jonah EasePublished 1 Oct 2026Last checked 1 Oct 2026

The Docker MCP Catalog is a list of MCP servers that Docker Desktop's MCP Toolkit can show. You join it with a pull request to Docker's docker/mcp-registry repo. Docker's contributing guide says every pull request needs a review from the Docker team before it merges^[1]. Below: the two kinds of entry, the steps, and what the queue looked like when it was last measured. ManyCP is not affiliated with Docker.

Two kinds of server

Local, in a container. The server needs a Dockerfile in its source repository^[1]. If you do not give Docker an image of your own, Docker builds one and hosts it in its mcp namespace on Docker Hub, with signatures, provenance and an SBOM. An image you build yourself keeps the container isolation but not those extras^[1].
Remote, already hosted. No Dockerfile. The server is reached over HTTPS with streamable-http or sse, and you give a public endpoint, the transport and a documentation URL^[1].

Need a Dockerfile to start from? There are two examples to adapt in Glama needs a Dockerfile.

The steps

Check the licence. Docker says MIT or Apache 2 are great and GPL is not^[1].
Fork docker/mcp-registry and clone it^[1].
Add a folder under servers with a server.yaml in it. The guide has task wizard or task create for a local server, and task remote-wizard for a remote one^[1]. A remote server also gets a tools.json (an empty list, because its tools are found at run time) and a readme.md that links its documentation^[1].
Test it in Docker Desktop. The guide builds the entry with task build, imports the catalog it makes into the MCP Toolkit, and resets the toolkit when you are done^[1].
Docker's guide asks you to share test credentials, for the reviewers, through its Google Form^[1]. You send those yourself.
Open the pull request, with a title and description that match what it changes. Make sure CI passes^[1]. You press the button. Docker's guide says an approved entry is processed and appears in the catalog within 24 hours^[1].

The step that most often blocks a pull request

Docker's guide calls the tool listing one of the most common issues that block a pull request: the build starts your server to list its tools, and fails if the server needs configuration first. A tools.json next to server.yaml makes the build read the list from the file instead^[1].

The queue, and how long merges took

On 1 Oct 2026, 1,428 pull requests were open on docker/mcp-registry^[2]. An open count is a snapshot, not a wait time.

How long merges took is measured from merged pull requests by outside contributors, from opened to merged^[3]. Over the last 50 such merges (30 Oct 2025 to 21 Aug 2026), the typical time from opening to merge was 6.2 days, and the middle half took 6 h to 19 days. Measured 1 Oct 2026. In the 12 months to that date, 78% of the outside pull requests that closed were closed without a merge.

Docker MCP CatalogRolling 30-day median time to merge

Docker MCP Catalog: rolling 30-day median time to merge, by the day the window ends. Windows with fewer than 3 merges are left out.
Window ending	Rolling median	Merges in window
9 Oct 2025	1.3 days	40
16 Oct 2025	1.3 days	28
23 Oct 2025	1.5 days	12
30 Oct 2025	under 1 h	18
6 Nov 2025	under 1 h	32
13 Nov 2025	2 h	39
20 Nov 2025	2 h	37
27 Nov 2025	2 h	37
4 Dec 2025	14 days	13
11 Dec 2025	16 days	10
18 Dec 2025	1.7 days	6
25 Dec 2025	1 day	5
1 Jan 2026	1.3 days	4
8 Jan 2026	14 h	6
15 Jan 2026	21 h	3
22 Jan 2026	11 days	4
29 Jan 2026	4.6 days	6
5 Feb 2026	4.6 days	4
12 Feb 2026	8.0 days	3
19 Feb 2026	13 days	6
26 Feb 2026	19 days	5
5 Mar 2026	23 days	4
12 Mar 2026	23 days	4
9 Apr 2026	26 days	4
16 Apr 2026	26 days	4
23 Apr 2026	14 days	5
30 Apr 2026	14 days	5
7 May 2026	14 days	3
9 July 2026	7.0 days	4
16 July 2026	13 days	3
30 July 2026	7.2 days	3

Measured 1 Oct 2026. Pull requests merged on each list's GitHub repo, timed from opened to merged, read from GitHub's REST pulls list. Bot accounts ([bot]), the repo's owners, members and collaborators, and pull requests from a branch inside the list's own repo are left out. Gaps in the line are 30-day stretches with fewer than 3 merges. All the directories side by side are in how long it takes to get an MCP server merged.

A past figure is not a promise. It says how earlier outside pull requests went, not how yours will, and nothing here makes a review faster.

What ManyCP does here

ManyCP forks docker/mcp-registry, adds your entry in the exact format, and opens the pull request from your GitHub account. It tracks the PR until it is merged.

You share test credentials through Docker's form yourself, if the server needs them. See also all 26 directories compared.

When you don't need ManyCP

You have one server. Fork, add the folder with the wizard, and open the pull request. It costs nothing.
Your server has no Dockerfile yet. Write that first; it is the larger part of the work, and ManyCP does not replace it.
You want it reviewed sooner. ManyCP cannot do that, and no tool can.

ManyCP helps when the same server goes to several directories and the entry has to stay the same in all of them. It costs $19 once per server, or from $9 a month^[4]. The free checker shows where a repo is listed today. The catalog page for this directory is Docker MCP Catalog.

Sources

docker/mcp-registry: CONTRIBUTING.md · checked 1 Oct 2026
GitHub REST API: search issues and pull requests · checked 1 Oct 2026
GitHub REST API: list pull requests · checked 1 Oct 2026
ManyCP pricing · checked 1 Oct 2026

ManyCP is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any directory, Docker, OpenAI, Anthropic or GitHub named here. Names are used to say which service a fact is about.