Skip to main content
The MCP Registry is currently in preview. Breaking changes or data resets may occur before general availability. If you encounter any issues, please report them on GitHub.
You must authenticate before publishing to the official MCP Registry. The MCP Registry supports different authentication methods. Which authentication method you choose determines the namespace of your server’s name. If you choose GitHub-based authentication, your server’s name in server.json MUST be of the form io.github.username/* (or io.github.orgname/*). For example, io.github.alice/weather-server. If you choose domain-based authentication, your server’s name in server.json MUST be of the form com.example.*/*, where com.example is the reverse-DNS form of your domain name. For example, io.modelcontextprotocol/everything.
AuthenticationName FormatExample Name
GitHub-basedio.github.username/* or io.github.orgname/*io.github.alice/weather-server
domain-basedcom.example.*/*io.modelcontextprotocol/everything

GitHub Authentication

GitHub authentication uses an OAuth flow initiated by the mcp-publisher CLI tool. To perform GitHub authentication, navigate to your server project directory and run:
mcp-publisher login github
You should see output like:
Output
Logging in with github...

To authenticate, please:
1. Go to: https://github.com/login/device
2. Enter code: ABCD-1234
3. Authorize this application
Waiting for authorization...
Visit the link, follow the prompts, and enter the authorization code that was printed in the terminal (e.g., ABCD-1234 in the above output). Once complete, go back to the terminal, and you should see output like:
Output
Successfully authenticated!
✓ Successfully logged in

DNS Authentication

DNS authentication is a domain-based authentication method that relies on a DNS TXT record. To perform DNS authentication using the mcp-publisher CLI tool, run the following commands in your server project directory to generate a TXT record based on a public/private key pair:
MY_DOMAIN="example.com"

# Generate public/private key pair using Ed25519
openssl genpkey -algorithm Ed25519 -out key.pem

# Generate TXT record
PUBLIC_KEY="$(openssl pkey -in key.pem -pubout -outform DER | tail -c 32 | base64)"
echo "${MY_DOMAIN}. IN TXT \"v=MCPv1; k=ed25519; p=${PUBLIC_KEY}\""
Then add the TXT record using your DNS provider’s control panel. It may take several minutes for the TXT record to propagate. After the TXT record has propagated, log in using the mcp-publisher login command:
MY_DOMAIN="example.com"

PRIVATE_KEY="$(openssl pkey -in key.pem -noout -text | grep -A3 "priv:" | tail -n +2 | tr -d ' :\n')"
mcp-publisher login dns --domain "${MY_DOMAIN}" --private-key "${PRIVATE_KEY}"

HTTP Authentication

HTTP authentication is a domain-based authentication method that relies on a /.well-known/mcp-registry-auth file hosted on your domain. For example, https://example.com/.well-known/mcp-registry-auth. To perform HTTP authentication using the mcp-publisher CLI tool, run the following commands in your server project directory to generate an mcp-registry-auth file based on a public/private key pair:
# Generate public/private key pair using Ed25519
openssl genpkey -algorithm Ed25519 -out key.pem

# Generate mcp-registry-auth file
PUBLIC_KEY="$(openssl pkey -in key.pem -pubout -outform DER | tail -c 32 | base64)"
echo "v=MCPv1; k=ed25519; p=${PUBLIC_KEY}" > mcp-registry-auth
Then host the mcp-registry-auth file at /.well-known/mcp-registry-auth on your domain. After the file is hosted, log in using the mcp-publisher login command:
MY_DOMAIN="example.com"
PRIVATE_KEY="$(openssl pkey -in key.pem -noout -text | grep -A3 "priv:" | tail -n +2 | tr -d ' :\n')"
mcp-publisher login http --domain "${MY_DOMAIN}" --private-key "${PRIVATE_KEY}"