# MCP Registry: server.json, Namespaces, and Publishing > How the official MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io) works: publishing with mcp-publisher, the server.json manifest, io.github./ namespaces, and how aggregators mirror it — with ChangeGamer's own registry listing as a worked example. Category: Reference · Updated: 2026-09-04 · Tags: mcp, registry, server-json, mcp-publisher, distribution, agents, protocols Canonical: https://changegamer.ai/resources/mcp-registry Variants: [HTML](https://changegamer.ai/resources/mcp-registry) · [JSON](https://changegamer.ai/api/resources/mcp-registry.json) License: https://changegamer.ai/license.xml · Access: free The MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io) is the official, community-driven open catalog for publicly available Model Context Protocol servers — backed by Anthropic, GitHub, PulseMCP, and Microsoft, and the natural first stop for discovery. It launched in preview in September 2025 and was still in preview as of mid-2026. ## Key facts - The MCP Registry launched in preview in September 2025, backed by Anthropic, GitHub, PulseMCP, and Microsoft, and was still in preview as of mid-2026. - The registry stores metadata only, not packages: a server's package must already be published to npm, PyPI, or another artifact registry before a listing can point at it. - Publishing runs through the mcp-publisher CLI in four steps — init (scaffolds a starter server.json), hand-editing that manifest, login github (authenticates via GitHub identity), and publish (submits the listing) — and only the last two steps touch the registry itself. - server.json is validated against a published JSON Schema and states at minimum the server's name, version, transport type, and endpoint URL. - Registry names follow a namespace tied to where the source lives — a GitHub-hosted project publishes as io.github./; ChangeGamer's own server is registered as io.github.beneb89/changegamer, pointing at the Streamable HTTP remote https://changegamer.ai/mcp. - Community aggregators — PulseMCP, Smithery, Glama, and MCP.so — mirror registry listings with inconsistent vetting rigor, so a listing there is a lead worth investigating, not a safety endorsement; github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers, once the default discovery point, now defers to the registry. ## Publishing and updating a listing Registering a server does not require uploading code — only a server.json pointer to where the package already lives. Updating a listing after a new release starts outside the registry: the package has to reach its artifact registry first, and only then does bumping the version field in server.json and re-running mcp-publisher publish make sense. No separate "update" subcommand is confirmed in ChangeGamer's own sources — treat that sequence as a reasonable default, not a documented API, and check the CLI's own help output before relying on it. For evaluating a server you're considering connecting to rather than publishing your own, see /resources/mcp-server-discovery. For the OAuth 2.1 model remote servers use once you're calling them, see /resources/mcp-server-authentication. For how MCP compares to Google's A2A protocol, see /resources/mcp-vs-a2a. --- ## Related resources - [MCP Apps Explained: The Official Interactive-UI Extension for MCP](https://changegamer.ai/resources/mcp-apps-explained.md): What MCP Apps (SEP-1865) is: the ui:// resource scheme and sandboxed-iframe/JSON-RPC bridge it defines for MCP tools to return rendered UI instead of plain text, how it relates to the community MCP-UI project and OpenAI's Apps SDK, and which hosts support it. - [MCP Goes Stateless: The 2026-07-28 Spec Revision Explained](https://changegamer.ai/resources/mcp-2026-spec-revision.md): What changes in MCP's largest revision since launch: SEP-2575/SEP-2567 remove the session handshake and Mcp-Session-Id header for explicit state handles, new Mcp-Method/Mcp-Name routing headers, full JSON Schema 2020-12 tool schemas, and six authorization-hardening SEPs — shipped as final, on schedule, on 2026-07-28. - [MCP Primitives: Resources, Prompts, Sampling, and Elicitation](https://changegamer.ai/resources/mcp-primitives.md): Deep reference on the six MCP capability primitives beyond tools — who controls each, the exact JSON-RPC method names, and when to use Resources vs Tools — verified against the 2025-06-18 and 2025-11-25 spec revisions. - [MCP Server Authentication: OAuth 2.1 for Remote Servers](https://changegamer.ai/resources/mcp-server-authentication.md): How OAuth 2.1 works for remote MCP servers: transport differences, Protected Resource Metadata discovery, PKCE, Resource Indicators, and token-audience security — with a step-by-step client flow and honest notes on what ChangeGamer's own /mcp endpoint does. --- ## Further reading - [How to Publish an MCP Server to the Official Registry](https://changegamer.ai/articles/mcp-server-registry-publishing-playbook.md): A step-by-step walkthrough of the mcp-publisher CLI and the server.json manifest for publishing an MCP server to registry.modelcontextprotocol.io, how to republish after a version bump, and how the registry relates to aggregators, marketplaces, and direct distribution. - [How to Implement OAuth 2.1 for an MCP Server](https://changegamer.ai/articles/mcp-oauth-implementation.md): A wire-level implementation walkthrough for OAuth 2.1 on a remote MCP server: what the discovery documents actually contain, CIMD vs. Dynamic Client Registration in your server code, per-SEP detail from the 2026-07-28 hardening set, and token-validation mechanics. --- Index of all resources: https://changegamer.ai/llms.txt · Full corpus: https://changegamer.ai/llms-full.txt · Corpus data (NDJSON): https://changegamer.ai/api/corpus.jsonl · Offers: https://changegamer.ai/api/pricing.json