OpenMCP

An open catalog of MCP relays: MCP servers you can reach over HTTP, listed by what they offer, verified against what they say about themselves, and callable through the catalog or direct. A reference catalog server, and a client that speaks REST, MCP and webhooks.

The specification is at logicsrc.com/openmcp; this repository is the reference implementation, and docs/openmcp.md is a copy of the spec.

What it is

Every product that speaks MCP is a relay: an endpoint an agent can call. Today each one has to be found by hand and wired into a client's config. OpenMCP gives a relay one file to serve, gives a catalog a way to list relays it has actually reached, and gives a client one door to all of them.

• A relay serves /.well-known/openmcp.json: where its MCP endpoint is, how to authenticate, what it is for, who operates it (an OpenProfile.md URL), and which catalogs list it.

• A catalog probes a relay before listing it: the descriptor from the relay's own origin, then an MCP handshake and tools/list. What is listed is what was found. The catalog holds no credentials and never speaks for a relay it could not reach.

• A catalog is itself a relay: it serves the same file, and its MCP endpoint offers list_relays, find_tool and call_tool, so an agent that can reach one catalog can reach every relay in it.

• Webhooks tell subscribers when a relay is registered, updated, goes offline or comes back. Deliveries are signed.

• The same records are a directory for people: browse, search, filter by tag, read a relay's tools and schemas. Sign in by emailed link (no passwords) to register relays of your own, probe them again and remove them.

• A catalog can host relays itself. This one hosts Obscura, a stealth headless browser: fetch_page returns any public web page as markdown, text, links or HTML, including pages that answer plain HTTP clients with 403.

• Catalogs peer: one learns the other's relays, and still probes each one before listing it.

Related MCP server: ripper-mcp

Install

curl -fsSL https://openmcp.logicsrc.com/install.sh | sh

One line puts the openmcp command under ~/.local: no root, no system package manager, nothing outside your home directory. The catalog needs Node 24 (node:sqlite); if the box has none, the installer fetches an official build into the same private directory and the command uses that one. openmcp update re-runs the installer and openmcp uninstall removes exactly the paths it wrote, from a manifest, with no network. openmcp where says what is installed. --version X and --prefix DIR after sh -s -- pin a release or move the root.

Every catalog serves the script at /install.sh, and the copy it serves names that catalog as the place update comes back to. npm install -g @logicsrc/openmcp works too, on a Node 24 you manage yourself.

Run a catalog

openmcp serve --port 8790 --url https://catalog.example --admin-token <token>

Node 24 or later, one SQLite file (--db), no build step. OPENMCP_URL, OPENMCP_DB, OPENMCP_ADMIN_TOKEN, OPENMCP_NAME, OPENMCP_OPERATOR, OPENMCP_REFRESH_MINUTES (10) and OPENMCP_SYNC_MINUTES (30) do the same from the environment. Without an admin token, removing other people's relays and managing peers are off; registration is always open.

Sign-in links go out through Resend: set RESEND_API_KEY and MAIL_FROM (Name <address> on a domain Resend has verified). Without a key, mail is off and the link is printed to the log instead, which is enough for a local run.

OPENMCP_HOSTED=obscura serves the Obscura relay from the same process, at obscura.<catalog host> (point that name at the same service, so the probe finds the descriptor on the relay's own origin and lists it verified) and under /hosted/obscura on the catalog's own origin. It needs the obscura binary on the PATH or at OBSCURA_BIN; the Dockerfile bundles release 0.2.2 from h4ckf0r0day/obscura on Debian, because the binary wants glibc 2.35. Three fetches at a time, a minute each at most, a megabyte of output, public hosts only.

The Dockerfile builds the image; .github/workflows/image.yml builds it on every push and publishes ghcr.io/logicsrc/openmcp (tagged by commit, by branch, latest from main, and by version from a v* tag). Production pulls that image, so what ships is what was built and tested, and no hosted builder is in the path. railway.json describes the one service, with a volume at /data. The live catalog is openmcp.logicsrc.com, with Obscura at obscura.openmcp.logicsrc.com.

For people

GET / with a browser's Accept header is the directory; with anything else it is the JSON index, so agents see no change. /relays is always the directory, /relays/:id one relay with its tools and schemas, /tags every tag in use.

/sign-up and /sign-in are one form: an email address, and a link arrives that signs you in and, the first time, makes the account. The answer is the same whether or not the address is known, five links an hour, twenty minutes each, once only. /me is your relays: add one by any URL on its origin, probe it again, remove it. A relay you register while signed in is yours; one already registered by somebody else stays theirs, and one registered anonymously belongs to nobody until its next registration by a signed-in person. Form posts are accepted from this site only.

The same over REST: POST /v1/auth/magic {email}, then the link sets the openmcp_session cookie; GET /v1/me is you and your relays; DELETE /v1/relays/:id works with that cookie for your own relays as well as with the admin token for any.

Use one

export OPENMCP_CATALOG=https://catalog.example   # optional: openmcp.logicsrc.com is the default
openmcp relays                              # what is listed
openmcp add https://agenticjobs.work        # register by any URL on the relay's origin
openmcp find "post an update"               # search every relay's tools
openmcp call agenticjobs.work post_update '{"body":"Shipped."}' --relay-token <token>
openmcp webhook add https://me.example/hooks --events relay.offline,relay.online
openmcp --transport mcp relays              # the same, over the catalog's MCP endpoint

From code:

import { OpenMcpClient, verifySignature } from "@logicsrc/openmcp/client";

const catalog = new OpenMcpClient({ url: "https://catalog.example" });
const [relay] = await catalog.relays({ q: "jobs" });
const outcome = await catalog.call(relay.id, "search_jobs", { q: "rust" });
const direct = await catalog.connect(relay.id);      // a plain MCP client for the relay itself

// In a webhook receiver:
verifySignature(secret, request.headers.get("x-openmcp-signature"), rawBody);

Serve a descriptor

openmcp descriptor https://your.site/api/mcp --name "Your site" > .well-known/openmcp.json

Fill in description, auth, tags and operator, serve it at /.well-known/openmcp.json, and any catalog can list you as verified.

The three doors

Every delivery carries X-OpenMCP-Event, X-OpenMCP-Delivery and X-OpenMCP-Signature: sha256=<hmac of the raw body>.

Develop

npm install
npm test          # node --test, no network
npm run typecheck

MIT. Part of the LogicSRC open-standards surface, maintained by Profullstack, Inc.