I can't wait for first-party remote MCP servers to become more common. Right now we're taking a strange detour of everyone trying to proxy everyone else's APIs and do manual API Key juggling because platforms aren't running their own MCP servers and clients don't support the latest OAuth changes.
In a year from now, Github will run a single public Github MCP server that you will connect to via OAuth - you won't need to install it locally or faff around with tokens or environment variables at all.
meander_water · 5h ago
This is kind of what smithery does already. You can choose to install a local server, or connect to a remotely hosted server on smithery after authenticating through your GitHub OAuth.
jjfoooo4 · 9h ago
I’ve been seeing MCP compared to extensions in web browsers. Which I find telling, since I wouldn’t exactly say web extensions have been a great success - it’s a pretty niche dev market, and the security posture remains pretty anxiety inducing
> The MCP Registry service provides a centralized repository for MCP server entries. It allows discovery and management of various MCP implementations with their associated metadata, configurations, and capabilities.
connor4312 · 8h ago
@ VS Code we've been collaborating on this and plan to ship initial support for registries in our next release.
FYI https://mcp.so/ is the exact same thing as was posted. Not sure why they directed to the github instead of the actual site..
jappgar · 7h ago
Is this like 10 years ago when you could find a Directory of GraphQL Servers?
Seems silly in retrospect no?
Too · 2h ago
The difference is that GraphQL requires explicit integration with every single API. With MCP you just add the endpoint (close your eyes for security issues) and voilá, several new capabilities were added that you can talk to using human language.
I wonder if there's a market for someone figuring out how to build monetization into MCP or something similar.
Being able to offer a helpful API to the world and just getting paid whenever someone uses it would be really nice.
At the moment you have to process the payment "yourself" (even if you use a third party for that), issue an API key, etc.
meander_water · 7h ago
I reckon the target market would have to be non-developers (because MCP servers are easily reproducible with LLMs, they even encourage it in the docs), and you wouldn't even mention MCP. Just have a list of tools which you can optionally enable in the chat client
tomjen3 · 2h ago
The market for MCP servers is the same as the market for rest endpoints: its a delivery mechanism for the underlying service.
I don't think you can make money on them, they are too simple to clone, but you can make money charging for the API. If you have a per usage license making an MCP is a very obvious choice - if you charge per seat it is mostly a question of how how sticky you are versus the competition.
OtherShrezzing · 1h ago
I see value in a pay-per-execution model. I run a service which has a lot of proprietary data. Right now, if Anthropic/OpenAI wanted to use that data in their responses, they need to find me, setup an account, plug it into their chatbot, and return the data to an end user.
With some kind of MCP tip jar, they could extract the data they need and pay $0.02 for the service.
It would remove a lot of friction in the system, and could generate revenues for content & data creators.
Nedomas · 7h ago
We've built a version of this on steroids - not only a registry, but also one-click mcp hosting. Would love you eyeballs if you're into mcp: https://supermachine.ai
mooreds · 10h ago
Also interesting was mintlify's decision to start one and then shut it down.
> Messages flooded in from developers both within and outside our customer base, all eager to submit their servers to get listed. The validation was clear – there was significant demand for what we'd built.
I know Han and he's a smart guy but this is very very wrong lol. there's significant SUPPLY for what he built. because everyone is just trying to self promote by putting mcp wrappers of their stuff out. the hard part is the demand.
(and also the fact that anthropic is putting up an official registry so it'll be steamrolled)
avandekleut · 1h ago
Ive used smithery.ai as well.
schappim · 7h ago
So far, I’ve catalogued over 6,000 MCP servers.
If you’re interested in the next layer beyond just discovering MCP servers, I’ve been working on https://ninja.ai — an app store for AI assistants to connect to tools via MCP, without needing to touch the command line. Think one-click installs for pipes that let agents actually do things like triage email or book Ubers.
Would love feedback if you’re experimenting in this space too!
tomjen3 · 2h ago
Cool. Just a heads up, ninja is also a name for a c++ build system.
cadamsdotcom · 9h ago
There's a huge gap in this market for someone who can take these and make them trustworthy. Maybe the OpenRouter of MCP.
tough · 9h ago
The underlying issue is always relying on a third party, on openrouter you're trusting the end model provider to not do funny business
can't really fix this
cadamsdotcom · 6h ago
If you're paying said third party it's a decent mitigation.
tough · 3h ago
maybe said third party could just run / veto most basic mcp servers so youcan run them on their server with some peace of mind
interesting
cyanydeez · 8h ago
I don't see how they could ever be trust worthy without kneecaping the claimed benefits.
constantinum · 5h ago
[Noob doubt]
Am I getting this right? Based on the architecture/flow diagram of MCP, every SaaS app out there can build an MCP server. But you'll need a "MCP host" to make it work, right? Right now, I'm only seeing a handful of hosts — Claude Desktop and Windsurf. Who will be building these "hosts"? I'm only seeing use cases revolving around these hosts. Is there any real-life production use-cases? How will this pan out?
happyopossum · 5h ago
Today there are a handful of client-side options, cline, Claude desktop, windsurf, Google’s ADK, etc. keep in mind though, we’re talking about a spec that was released around last Thanksgiving. It’s been like 7 months, and the pace of development has been blistering.
Once the authN/authZ stuff is fully codified and baked, we’ll see first part MCP gateways and the ability to connect to those tools with the Chatbot of your choice.
Consider what we see now as a developer preview…
devops000 · 9h ago
What is a useful agent build with MCP?
kordlessagain · 9h ago
I have an agent that creates new tools here: https://github.com/kordless/gnosis-evolve. I use it with Claude Desktop for a lot of different things, including browsing or searching for content, with the various crawlers that are out now. There's a crawl4ai tool that is pretty useful.
867-5309 · 8h ago
Model Context Protocol
asdev · 9h ago
You don't need MCP you just need function calling
hughdbrown · 9h ago
Yeah, but there is a distinct advantage to using a standard.
Suppose you want your agent to use postgres or git or even file modification. You write your code to use MCP and your backend is already available. It's code you don't have to write.
jappgar · 7h ago
Are we still writing code?
revskill · 1h ago
We write to fix the bullshits from ai.
mindwok · 9h ago
Yes because we should all be building function calling implementations for the same 10 SaaS services rather than using 10 standard MCP servers.
ukuina · 7h ago
But the standard servers should be hosted by the service provider, like mcp.slack.com as a counterpart to api.slack.com
Why should I be self-hosting ANY local MCP server for accessing an external service?
That flaw isn't introduced by the MCP server necessarily it can already be present in the API data it returns, you will never be able to protect yourself against someone injecting a malicious prompt that calls your code eval tool to open up a reverse shell on your MacBook Pro.
reustle · 6h ago
That is being done as a stop gap until official servers are released. Ideally you are writing a server for your own product/service, or custom local work.
i.e. I wrote a server for water.gov to pull the river height prediction nearby for the next 24hr. This helps the campground welcome message writing tool craft a better welcome message.
Sure that could be a plain tool call, but why not make it portable into any AI service.
jappgar · 7h ago
I find it funny that vibers trust AI to write their entire platform but don't trust it enough to eval a curl statement.
laidoffamazon · 9h ago
Is there a better “universal” or standard framework to do itv
asdev · 9h ago
you don't need any universal standard, you just need functions specific to your app's use case
djohnston · 8h ago
you can leverage MCPs without building any app at all.
In a year from now, Github will run a single public Github MCP server that you will connect to via OAuth - you won't need to install it locally or faff around with tokens or environment variables at all.
> The MCP Registry service provides a centralized repository for MCP server entries. It allows discovery and management of various MCP implementations with their associated metadata, configurations, and capabilities.
- https://smithery.ai/
- https://github.com/wong2/awesome-mcp-servers
- http://mcp.so/servers
- https://cursor.directory/mcp
But as mentioned above, there is an ongoing discussion for the Anthropic registry https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry
Seems silly in retrospect no?
Being able to offer a helpful API to the world and just getting paid whenever someone uses it would be really nice.
At the moment you have to process the payment "yourself" (even if you use a third party for that), issue an API key, etc.
I don't think you can make money on them, they are too simple to clone, but you can make money charging for the API. If you have a per usage license making an MCP is a very obvious choice - if you charge per seat it is mostly a question of how how sticky you are versus the competition.
With some kind of MCP tip jar, they could extract the data they need and pay $0.02 for the service.
It would remove a lot of friction in the system, and could generate revenues for content & data creators.
https://mintlify.com/blog/why-we-sunsetted-mcpt
Nice story of startup focus.
I know Han and he's a smart guy but this is very very wrong lol. there's significant SUPPLY for what he built. because everyone is just trying to self promote by putting mcp wrappers of their stuff out. the hard part is the demand.
(and also the fact that anthropic is putting up an official registry so it'll be steamrolled)
If you’re interested in the next layer beyond just discovering MCP servers, I’ve been working on https://ninja.ai — an app store for AI assistants to connect to tools via MCP, without needing to touch the command line. Think one-click installs for pipes that let agents actually do things like triage email or book Ubers.
Would love feedback if you’re experimenting in this space too!
can't really fix this
interesting
Am I getting this right? Based on the architecture/flow diagram of MCP, every SaaS app out there can build an MCP server. But you'll need a "MCP host" to make it work, right? Right now, I'm only seeing a handful of hosts — Claude Desktop and Windsurf. Who will be building these "hosts"? I'm only seeing use cases revolving around these hosts. Is there any real-life production use-cases? How will this pan out?
Once the authN/authZ stuff is fully codified and baked, we’ll see first part MCP gateways and the ability to connect to those tools with the Chatbot of your choice.
Consider what we see now as a developer preview…
Suppose you want your agent to use postgres or git or even file modification. You write your code to use MCP and your backend is already available. It's code you don't have to write.
Why should I be self-hosting ANY local MCP server for accessing an external service?
i.e. I wrote a server for water.gov to pull the river height prediction nearby for the next 24hr. This helps the campground welcome message writing tool craft a better welcome message.
Sure that could be a plain tool call, but why not make it portable into any AI service.