MCPExplorer

The search engine and trust layer for MCP servers.

→ mcpexplorer.com

MCPExplorer indexes Model Context Protocol servers and verifies each one with a live handshake — so you can see the real tools a server exposes, each labeled by risk, plus a trust score, before you install it.

Every "awesome MCP" list is a static, unverified README. MCPExplorer actually runs the servers.

This repo is the public home for MCPExplorer's docs and its MCP server manifest. The product itself lives at mcpexplorer.com.

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The problem

As the MCP ecosystem grew past thousands of servers, the lists stopped being useful. From a name and a one-line description you can't tell:

• what tools a server actually exposes,
• whether those tools are read-only or can delete your data,
• whether it needs credentials,
• or whether it's still maintained —

until you install it and hope.

What MCPExplorer does

• Verifies, doesn't just list. It runs the real MCP tools/list handshake on every server — remote servers over the network, local/stdio servers in a hardened, ephemeral Docker sandbox — and extracts the true tool surface.
• Labels tool risk. Every tool is tagged read / write / destructive, so you know what a server can do before you connect it.
• Scores trust. A deterministic score from provenance, verification, adoption, and freshness — with every contributing factor shown on the page, not a black box.
• Stays fresh. Every fact carries provenance and a "last checked" timestamp.

Currently ~1,000 servers indexed · 3,500+ tools extracted · 278 handshake-verified.

Start here

• 🔍 Explore the index — https://mcpexplorer.com/explore
• ⭐ Best MCP servers (ranked) — https://mcpexplorer.com/best-mcp-servers
• 📖 What is an MCP server? — https://mcpexplorer.com/what-is-an-mcp-server
• 📊 State of MCP report — https://mcpexplorer.com/reports

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The MCPExplorer MCP server

MCPExplorer exposes its own MCP server, so you can search, vet, and assemble servers from inside your agent — without leaving your client. Hand plan_toolset a plain-language goal and get back a recommended, governed toolset.

Endpoint: https://mcpexplorer.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no auth)

Add it to Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http mcpexplorer https://mcpexplorer.com/mcp

Or add it to any MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcpexplorer": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://mcpexplorer.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Tools (14):

Tool	What it does
search_servers	Search the index by capability, transport, and risk
get_server	A server's verified tools, install command, and trust breakdown
get_capability	Servers that provide a given capability
compare_servers	Side-by-side comparison of two servers
get_alternatives	Servers similar to a given one
check_trust	Explainable trust score and reasoning for a server
generate_runtime_config	Ready-to-paste client config for a server
list_capabilities	The capability slugs you can search and look up by
list_runtimes	Runtimes generate_runtime_config supports
get_ecosystem_stats	Live totals + provenance/transport breakdowns
list_loadouts	Curated server kits for a job (GTM, coding, research, …)
get_loadout	One kit with live trust + aggregated tool-risk
plan_toolset	Plain-language goal → a recommended governed toolset
report_broken_server	Flag a stale or broken listing

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How verification works

Every server flows through a crawler pipeline:

discover → fetch → parse → normalize → resolve → enrich →
classify → verify (live handshake) → score trust → decide indexability

The verify stage is the heart of it. Remote servers are probed over the network; local/stdio servers are executed in a locked-down container (--read-only, --cap-drop ALL, --security-opt no-new-privileges, no host mounts, no secrets, memory/CPU/PID limits, auto-removed) that runs only known launchers (npx/uvx/uv/pnpm/bunx). The handshake extracts the real tools/list, and each tool's risk is derived from its name and schema.

A page is only indexed once it has real MCP-server evidence and enough verified facts — so the index stays servers, not framework repos or link lists.

For agents & programmatic access

• MCP server: https://mcpexplorer.com/mcp (see above)
• llms.txt: https://mcpexplorer.com/llms.txt

Submit a server

Missing something? Submit it at https://mcpexplorer.com/submit — it enters the same verification pipeline as everything else.

FAQ

Is this affiliated with Anthropic? No. MCP is Anthropic's open protocol; MCPExplorer is an independent index built on top of it.

Is the trust score a black box? No. It's deterministic, and every +/− factor is shown on each server's page.

How do you run untrusted servers safely? Local/stdio servers only ever run inside the hardened, ephemeral container described above — never on the host, never with secrets.

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_{MCPExplorer · mcpexplorer.com · a discovery, trust, and capability graph for MCP servers.}