{
  "data": {
    "faq": null,
    "kicker": "Research · Get found by agents · 12 October 2026",
    "lede": "Half the tools we list have an MCP server, and only a third of those are in the official registry. What MCP is, why we think it's a clumsy protocol, when a plain API does the job, and how to get found either way."
  },
  "kind": "anchor.page",
  "links": {
    "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json",
    "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/blog/how-to-make-your-mcp-server-discoverable",
    "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/blog/how-to-make-your-mcp-server-discoverable.json",
    "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt",
    "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/blog/how-to-make-your-mcp-server-discoverable.md",
    "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/blog/how-to-make-your-mcp-server-discoverable.min.md"
  },
  "markdown": "## What it is, briefly\n\nAn MCP server gives an AI agent tools, data and prompts through the Model Context Protocol, which Anthropic published on 25 November 2024 as \"an open standard for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data lives\" [[1]](#ref-1). The agent asks the server what tools it has, reads their descriptions and calls them. It runs either as a program on the agent's machine (stdio) or behind one web address (Streamable HTTP) [[2]](#ref-2).\n\nWe run one ourselves at `https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp`, with ten tools to search the directory, read and compare listings, look up prices and check another server before trusting it [[3]](#ref-3). So this isn't written from the outside.\n\n## Why we think it's a clumsy protocol\n\nIt's expensive to read. In most clients every tool's description goes into the model's context before it does anything. Among the servers where we counted, the median has 19 tools, one in ten has 84 or more and the largest has 1,096 [[4]](#ref-4), and the agent pays for every one of those descriptions on every call.\n\nIt keeps moving. The specification has had at least four revisions in under two years, 2024-11-05, 2025-03-26, 2025-06-18 and 2026-07-28, and the original HTTP transport was replaced along the way [[2]](#ref-2) [[3]](#ref-3). A server has to keep up with each one, or count on its clients still speaking the old version.\n\nIts descriptions are instructions. A tool description is text the model reads and trusts, so a server can tell an agent to do things its user never asked for. That's why we built [a check](/check) that reads a server's tool list the way a client does and flags text aimed at the model, among 29 rules [[5]](#ref-5).\n\nAnd a lot of it HTTP already did. Authentication ends up being OAuth anyway, and describing what each call takes and returns is what an OpenAPI document has done for years.\n\n## When a plain API does the job\n\n523 of the 966 tools we list publish an OpenAPI description, and 231 of those have no MCP server at all [[4]](#ref-4). On our benchmark the ones with OpenAPI and no MCP average 60.0, the ones with MCP and no OpenAPI average 57.9, and the ones with both average 63.7 [[4]](#ref-4).\n\nSo if you have an API, publish a good OpenAPI description first. Any agent that can make an HTTP request can use it, and plenty of agent frameworks can turn one into tools. Then add a thin MCP server over the same API, because some clients only look for MCP, and keep it to the handful of calls an agent needs. That's what we did. Everything our MCP server does is also a plain HTTP call described in our [OpenAPI document](/openapi.json) [[3]](#ref-3).\n\n## How to get found\n\n**Get into the official MCP registry.** Only 156 of the 487 tools we list that speak MCP are in it [[4]](#ref-4). Directories read it to find servers, ours included, and our search answers agents with registry servers after the ones we grade [[3]](#ref-3).\n\n**Say where it lives, in words an agent can copy.** Put the server's exact address and a one-line install on your docs page and in your llms.txt. We also publish ours at `/.well-known/mcp/server.json`, so anything that finds the domain finds the server [[6]](#ref-6).\n\n**Keep the tool list short and the descriptions plain.** Fewer tools with clear names get picked correctly more often, and plain descriptions pass a check like ours [[5]](#ref-5).\n\n**Claim your listing on Anchor Terminal.** Listing is free, and so is claiming. A claim puts your name to the listing, by a DNS record, an HTTP challenge or a commit to your repository, and lets you correct its facts. Claiming never changes a score [[7]](#ref-7). Agents searching our directory over MCP or the API get the tools we grade first, with their transports and how to connect.\n\n## References\n\nRead on 10 October 2026.\n\n[1] Anthropic, Introducing the Model Context Protocol, 25 November 2024. Source for the launch date and the definition. https://www.anthropic.com/news/model-context-protocol\n\n[2] Model Context Protocol, specification 2025-06-18, Transports. Source for stdio and Streamable HTTP, the earlier 2024-11-05 and 2025-03-26 revisions, and the HTTP+SSE transport being replaced. https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-06-18/basic/transports\n\n[3] Anchor Terminal, For agents. Source for our server's address and tools, the 2026-07-28 revision it speaks, the same functions over plain HTTP and the search covering registry servers. https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/\n\n[4] Anchor Terminal, the directory, 10 October 2026. Source for the counts of tools speaking MCP, registry presence, tool counts, OpenAPI descriptions and the average scores. Each listing links the pages it was graded from. https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/\n\n[5] Anchor Terminal, Check an MCP server. Source for the check of tool lists against 29 rules. https://www.anchorterminal.com/check\n\n[6] Anchor Terminal, our MCP server description. Source for the file we publish. https://www.anchorterminal.com/.well-known/mcp/server.json\n\n[7] Anchor Terminal, For builders, Claiming. Source for free listing, how a claim is proved and claims never changing a score. https://www.anchorterminal.com/builders/\n\n---\n\n- Older: [Most agent tools can't pass a due-diligence questionnaire](https://www.anchorterminal.com/blog/agent-tools-arent-ready-for-enterprise.md)\n- Newer: [How to make your site and tool ready for agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/blog/how-to-make-your-site-ready-for-agents.md)\n- All posts: https://www.anchorterminal.com/blog/index.md\n",
  "meta": {
    "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)",
    "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/",
    "generatedAt": "2026-10-10",
    "license": "CC-BY-4.0",
    "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/",
    "methodology": "0.4",
    "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json",
    "preview": false,
    "run": "2026-10-01",
    "runLabel": "October 2026 research run"
  },
  "page": {
    "breadcrumbs": [
      {
        "name": "Home",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/"
      },
      {
        "name": "Blog",
        "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/blog/"
      },
      {
        "name": "Make your MCP server discoverable",
        "url": ""
      }
    ],
    "description": "Half the tools we list have an MCP server, and few of them are easy to find. What MCP is, why we think it's a clumsy protocol, when a plain API with an OpenAPI description does the same job, and the steps that get a server found.",
    "facts": [
      "Anchor Terminal research",
      "12 October 2026"
    ],
    "h1": "How to make your MCP server discoverable",
    "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/blog-mcp-discoverable.png",
    "path": "/blog/how-to-make-your-mcp-server-discoverable",
    "published": "2026-10-12",
    "section": "blog",
    "title": "How to make your MCP server discoverable, and when OpenAPI is enough | Anchor Terminal",
    "toc": null,
    "updated": "2026-10-12",
    "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/blog/how-to-make-your-mcp-server-discoverable"
  },
  "tokens": {
    "markdown": 1550,
    "slim": 680
  },
  "version": 1
}