mcp-tc

mcp-tc is the command-line tool for mcp.tc, a directory of MCP servers. It finds servers in the directory and adds them to your MCP clients with each vendor's own URL or package, and it helps you build an MCP server and check it the way mcp.tc reads it.

$ npx mcp-tc search github
$ npx mcp-tc add deepwiki --client cursor

• Install
• Commands
• Examples
• Adding servers to your clients
• Privacy: what the CLI sends
• Scripts and agents: --json and exit codes
• For server authors
• Contributing and development
• License
• About mcp.tc

Install

You need Node.js 20 or later. Run any command without installing:

npx mcp-tc <command>

Or install it once and use mcp-tc (or the shorter alias mcptc):

npm i -g mcp-tc
mcp-tc --version

The package has no runtime dependencies and no build step.

Commands

| Command | What it does | |---|---| | search [query] | Search the directory for MCP servers | | info <slug\|name\|link> | Show one listing: what it does, how to connect, its tools | | categories | List the directory categories and how many servers each has | | open <slug> | Open a listing page in your browser | | add <slug> --client <id> | Add a server to an MCP client with mcp.tc's setup steps | | scan | Find the servers in your MCP client configs on mcp.tc | | doctor <slug\|url> | Connect to a server directly and report what it answers | | badge <slug> | Print badge, website card and iframe snippets for a listing | | dns-check <domain> | Look for mcp.tc verification TXT records in a domain's DNS | | submit <url> | Suggest a server to mcp.tc and wait for the result | | create <name> | Start a new MCP server project (TypeScript SDK v2) | | check <url\|dir> | Check a server or project the way mcp.tc reads it | | card [dir] | Make a server card and a server.json for the MCP Registry |

Every command takes --json, --no-color (colors are also off when NO_COLOR is set or the output is not a terminal), -h/--help and -v/--version. mcp-tc help <command> shows a command's options, examples and exit codes.

Examples

The outputs below are from real runs of mcp-tc. The examples that would change something on mcp.tc, or that need a particular kind of server, ran against the local copies of mcp.tc and of an MCP server that come with the test suite. Lines with directory totals are cut (…) because those numbers change every day.

search

$ mcp-tc search github --limit 5
… servers match "github", featured first. Showing 5.

Name              Slug             Access      Tagline
DeepWiki ✓        deepwiki         No sign-in  Ask questions about any public GitHub repository and read its…
GitHub ✓          github           Sign-in     Work with GitHub repos, issues, pull requests, Actions workflo…
GitMCP            gitmcp           No sign-in  Read documentation and search code of any GitHub repository, s…
Grep by Vercel ✓  grep             No sign-in  Search real code across a million public GitHub repositories w…
Awesome Copilot   awesome-copilot  Local       Retrieve GitHub Copilot customization files from the Awesome C…

✓ Verified: the checkmark says who runs the server, not that it is safe.
More results on mcp.tc: https://mcp.tc/directory?q=github&…
Details and setup: mcp-tc info <slug>

Results come in the directory's default order, Featured first. Every word must appear in a server's name, vendor, tagline or tags. --category <slug> limits the search to one category, --auth none|sign-in|local to one kind of access, and --limit takes 1 to 25 (default 10). The Access column describes the server: No sign-in, Sign-in, API key, Sign-in optional, Unconfirmed (a remote server whose sign-in mcp.tc hasn't confirmed) or Local.

info

$ mcp-tc info deepwiki
DeepWiki ✓
Ask questions about any public GitHub repository and read its AI-generated DeepWiki documentation.

Vendor      Cognition
Category    Docs & Knowledge (docs-knowledge)
Access      No sign-in: add the server URL to any client that supports remote MCP servers.
Server URL  https://mcp.deepwiki.com/mcp
Transport   streamable-http
Checkmark   Verified by mcp.tc: official server from Cognition
Last check  2026-10-05 22:43 UTC, answered
Listing     https://mcp.tc/i/deepwiki
…

Tools (3)
  Tool                 Hints  What it does
  ask_wiki_question           Ask a question about a GitHub repository and get an answer grounded in its Deep…
  read_wiki_contents          View documentation about a GitHub repository.
  read_wiki_structure         Get a list of documentation topics for a GitHub repository.
  Hints come from the server's own tool annotations; blank means the server doesn't say.
…
Add it to a client: mcp-tc add deepwiki --client <id>
Clients: claude-code, claude-desktop, claude-ai, chatgpt, cursor, vscode, devin, codex, gemini, json

info takes a slug (notion), a name ("Hugging Face") or a listing link (https://mcp.tc/i/notion). It also shows the description, capabilities, example prompts and, when mcp.tc tracks them, the listing's recent changes.

categories

$ mcp-tc categories
Slug                Name                       Servers  About
developer-tools     Developer Tools            …        MCP servers for everyday coding work: repositories, c…
docs-knowledge      Docs & Knowledge           …        Servers that put current documentation and knowledge…
search-web          Search & Web Data          …        Web search, crawling, scraping and extraction servers…
…
Search one: mcp-tc search --category <slug> [words]

open

$ mcp-tc open notion
Opened https://mcp.tc/i/notion

$ mcp-tc open deepwiki --lang de --print
https://mcp.tc/de/i/deepwiki

--lang it|fr|de|es opens the page in that language. Without a display, or with --json or --print, open prints the link instead of starting a browser.

add

$ mcp-tc add deepwiki --client claude-code --dry-run
Claude Code: this command adds DeepWiki:
  $ claude mcp add --transport http deepwiki https://mcp.deepwiki.com/mcp
Dry run: nothing was run.

$ mcp-tc add deepwiki --client cursor --dry-run
Cursor: add "deepwiki" to ~/.cursor/mcp.json

--- ~/.cursor/mcp.json
+++ ~/.cursor/mcp.json
@@ -9,6 +9,9 @@
       "env": {
         "WEATHER_API_KEY": "<hidden>"
       }
+    },
+    "deepwiki": {
+      "url": "https://mcp.deepwiki.com/mcp"
     }
   }
 }

Dry run: nothing was written.

The diff hides the values of the servers already in the file. Without --dry-run, add asks before it runs or writes anything. See Adding servers to your clients for what it does in each client.

scan

$ mcp-tc scan
Found 4 MCP servers in 2 config files.

Claude Code: ~/.claude.json
  example  https://example.com/mcp?...
           Not on mcp.tc. Suggest it: mcp-tc submit https://example.com/mcp

Cursor: ~/.cursor/mcp.json
  deepwiki       https://mcp.deepwiki.com/mcp
                 On mcp.tc: DeepWiki ✓, No sign-in: https://mcp.tc/i/deepwiki
  weather        npx @example/weather-mcp
                 Not on mcp.tc. Suggest it: mcp-tc submit https://www.npmjs.com/package/@example/weather-mcp
  my-dev-server  http://localhost:3000/...
                 not looked up: an address on this computer or a private network

On mcp.tc: 1 listed, 2 not listed, 1 not looked up.
Suggest a missing server with: mcp-tc submit <url>, or at https://mcp.tc/submit

Here scan sent https://example.com/mcp (without its ?key=…), https://mcp.deepwiki.com/mcp and @example/weather-mcp, then made one request for the directory index. The localhost server, the header in the Claude Code entry and the environment value in the Cursor entry were not sent. mcp-tc scan --offline lists the same servers and sends nothing. --client <id> reads one client's files only.

scan reads these files, in your home folder and in the current folder:

| Client | Files | |---|---| | Claude Code | ~/.claude.json (your servers, and this folder's), .mcp.json | | Claude Desktop | claude_desktop_config.json (macOS and Windows) | | Cursor | ~/.cursor/mcp.json, .cursor/mcp.json | | VS Code | the user mcp.json (Stable, Insiders and their profiles), ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json, .vscode/mcp.json, .mcp.json | | Devin Desktop | mcp_config.json, and the older ~/.codeium/mcp_config.json and ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json | | Codex | ~/.codex/config.toml (or $CODEX_HOME), .codex/config.toml | | Gemini CLI | ~/.gemini/settings.json, .gemini/settings.json |

An entry that points at an mcp.tc listing page (https://mcp.tc/i/…) instead of the server is reported, with the add command that sets the server's own URL: a listing page is a web page, and MCP clients can't connect to it.

doctor

$ mcp-tc doctor https://mcp.tc/mcp
Connecting to https://mcp.tc/mcp ...
Server URL  https://mcp.tc/mcp
Answer      HTTP 200 in 161 ms
Protocol    2026-07-28 (server/discover)
Transport   Streamable HTTP, JSON replies
Session     none (stateless)
Access      No sign-in
Server      mcp.tc 1.1.0 (mcp.tc directory)
Tools       3 (3 read-only)
Requests    2 in 231 ms

The server answers MCP without sign-in.

doctor connects the way an MCP client would: the 2026-07-28 style (server/discover) first, then the initialize handshake, then the older HTTP+SSE transport. It reads JSON and SSE replies. It reads a server's OAuth metadata but never signs in, and it never calls a tool. For a server that asks for sign-in:

$ mcp-tc doctor http://localhost:3000/mcp
Connecting to http://localhost:3000/mcp ...
Server URL   http://localhost:3000/mcp
Answer       HTTP 401
Access       Sign-in (OAuth): the client opens a sign-in page the first time it connects
Metadata     http://localhost:3000/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource/mcp
Scopes       docs:read
Auth server  http://localhost:3000 (client registration: yes; PKCE S256: yes)
Requests     3 in 48 ms

The server asks for OAuth sign-in. Clients open the sign-in page the first time they connect; its tools show after that.

Give doctor a slug, a name or a listing link and it asks mcp.tc for the server's URL first, then connects to that URL. To test your own server with a token, pass --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" (repeatable). --timeout sets the seconds to wait for each answer (default 15).

badge

$ mcp-tc badge deepwiki
README badge (Markdown)
[![DeepWiki on mcp.tc](https://mcp.tc/i/deepwiki/badge.svg)](https://mcp.tc/i/deepwiki)

Badge (HTML)
<a href="https://mcp.tc/i/deepwiki"><img src="https://mcp.tc/i/deepwiki/badge.svg" alt="DeepWiki on mcp.tc" height="20"></a>

Website card (script tag)
<script src="https://mcp.tc/w/deepwiki.js" async></script>

Compact card (iframe)
<iframe src="https://mcp.tc/embed/deepwiki" title="DeepWiki on mcp.tc" width="420" height="200" loading="lazy" allow="clipboard-write" style="border:0;border-radius:8px;max-width:100%"></iframe>

Options (themes, sizes, languages): https://mcp.tc/embed

--format md|html|js|iframe prints only that snippet, ready to append to a file: mcp-tc badge my-server --format md >> README.md.

dns-check

$ mcp-tc dns-check example.com
TXT records starting with mcp-tc-verification= (system resolver):

  example.com          2 TXT records, none for mcp.tc
  _mcp-tc.example.com  no TXT records

No mcp-tc-verification= record found at example.com or _mcp-tc.example.com.
Note: mcp.tc also asks the domain's authoritative name servers, so a record you just added can reach mcp.tc before your resolver shows it.

It also takes a URL (`mcp-tc dns-che