MCP Registry Tutorial: Publishing, Discovery, and Governance for MCP Servers

Learn how modelcontextprotocol/registry works end to end: publishing authenticated server metadata, consuming the API as an aggregator, and operating registry infrastructure safely.

Why This Track Matters

The MCP Registry defines the shared metadata plane for MCP server discovery. It is where publishers prove ownership and where clients or subregistries fetch canonical server metadata.

This track focuses on:

• creating and publishing valid server.json artifacts
• applying namespace and package ownership verification correctly
• consuming registry APIs efficiently with pagination and incremental sync
• running admin, deployment, and governance operations with stronger discipline

Current Snapshot (auto-updated)

• repository: modelcontextprotocol/registry
• stars: about 7k
• GitHub release reference: v1.7.9 (checked 2026-06-29; release metadata on GitHub)

Mental Model

flowchart LR
    A[Publisher + mcp-publisher] --> B[Registry Auth + Validation]
    B --> C[Versioned Metadata Store]
    C --> D[Public API]
    D --> E[Clients + Aggregators + Subregistries]

Chapter Guide

Chapter	Key Question	Outcome
01 - Getting Started and First Publish	How do I publish a valid server for the first time?	Working publish baseline
02 - Registry Architecture and Data Flow	How is the registry system structured internally?	Clear system model
03 - server.json Schema and Package Verification	How do I build metadata that passes validation reliably?	Better publication quality
04 - Authentication Models and Namespace Ownership	Which auth path should I use for each namespace model?	Correct auth strategy
05 - API Consumption, Subregistries, and Sync Strategies	How do consumers ingest registry data at scale?	Reliable downstream sync
06 - Versioning, Governance, and Moderation Lifecycle	How do metadata lifecycle and policy controls work?	Lower governance risk
07 - Admin Operations, Deployment, and Observability	How do operators run the registry in production-like environments?	Stronger operations
08 - Production Rollout, Automation, and Contribution	How do teams ship and evolve registry workflows over time?	Long-term execution playbook

What You Will Learn

• how to publish registry metadata with tighter schema and ownership guarantees
• how to consume registry APIs as an aggregator or subregistry with less drift
• how to reason about immutable versioning, status transitions, and moderation flows
• how to automate publication and operate registry infrastructure with safer defaults

Source References

• Registry README
• Registry Documentation Index
• Tech Architecture
• Generic Registry API
• Official Registry API
• server.json Specification
• Publisher CLI Commands
• Authentication Guide
• Admin Operations

Related Tutorials

• MCP Inspector Tutorial
• MCP Python SDK Tutorial
• FastMCP Tutorial
• awslabs/mcp Tutorial

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Start with Chapter 1: Getting Started and First Publish.

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Full Chapter Map

1. Chapter 1: Getting Started and First Publish
2. Chapter 2: Registry Architecture and Data Flow
3. Chapter 3: server.json Schema and Package Verification
4. Chapter 4: Authentication Models and Namespace Ownership
5. Chapter 5: API Consumption, Subregistries, and Sync Strategies
6. Chapter 6: Versioning, Governance, and Moderation Lifecycle
7. Chapter 7: Admin Operations, Deployment, and Observability
8. Chapter 8: Production Rollout, Automation, and Contribution

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