Taproom

Taproom discovers portable agent capabilities without owning them. It indexes skill collections and MCP server registries, exposes skills through standard FastMCP resources, and provides a local CLI for explicit installation.

The development defaults discover sibling checkouts of the public SkillTap and MCP Tap collections. A taproom.toml file can register any number of named public or private taps, each containing multiple skill and MCP sources. Private collections are never loaded implicitly.

Architecture

• The hosted FastMCP service searches and serves capability metadata.

• FastMCP's skill provider exposes a namespaced skill:// resource, generated manifest, and supporting files for every indexed skill.

• A small MJS CLI performs local filesystem changes, verifies SHA-256 hashes, and records installed files in .taproom.lock.

• MCP packages are searchable, inspectable, hash-verifiable, and fetchable. Automatic activation requires declared host requirements and a passing local doctor check.

Related MCP server: MCPfinder

Quickstart

Requires Python 3.11+, uv, and FastMCP 3.4.x.

git clone https://github.com/batteryshark/taproom.git
git clone https://github.com/batteryshark/skills-tap.git skill-tap
cd taproom
uv sync
uv run taproom-server

The MCP endpoint is http://127.0.0.1:8768/mcp. The CLI-facing HTTP API is under http://127.0.0.1:8768/api/v1/.

Configure taps

Copy taproom.example.toml to the ignored local file taproom.toml, then enable and edit the taps available on that host:

cp taproom.example.toml taproom.toml

Each tap has a stable name and visibility. Sources inside it have their own names, kinds, and roots:

version = 1

[[taps]]
name = "private"
visibility = "private"

[[taps.sources]]
name = "skilltap"
kind = "skill"
path = "../skill-tap-private/skills"

[[taps.sources]]
name = "rekit"
kind = "skill"
path = "../../reverse-engineering-tools/rekit-private/skills"

[[taps.sources]]
name = "rekit"
kind = "mcp"
path = "../../reverse-engineering-tools/rekit-private/mcp-servers"

Relative source paths resolve from the config file. Set TAPROOM_CONFIG to use a config stored elsewhere. The older TAPROOM_SKILL_ROOTS and TAPROOM_MCP_ROOTS variables remain available for a single compatibility tap. Set TAPROOM_HOST or TAPROOM_PORT to override the default bind address. The visibility field is descriptive metadata; it does not enforce access.

Remote deployment

Taproom binds to 127.0.0.1 by default. Its CLI-facing HTTP routes do not provide built-in authentication. Put a remotely bound instance behind an authenticated reverse proxy, and set TAPROOM_SKILL_ROOTS and TAPROOM_MCP_ROOTS or TAPROOM_CONFIG to an explicit allowlist. Never expose private collection roots through an unauthenticated deployment.

Use the local CLI

The CLI has no npm dependencies and requires Node.js 20+.

node bin/taproom.mjs taps
node bin/taproom.mjs search "understand an inherited codebase"
node bin/taproom.mjs search "trace a native process" --tap private
node bin/taproom.mjs info public:skill:skilltap~development~codebase-archeology
node bin/taproom.mjs add public:skill:skilltap~development~codebase-archeology --project .
node bin/taproom.mjs add public:skill:skilltap~development~codebase-archeology --global

Capability IDs use tap:kind:source~path, so identical skill names from different taps, sources, or categories remain independently addressable.

MCP packages

Inspect requirements before fetching or activating a server:

node bin/taproom.mjs plan public:mcp:mcptap~travel~sandals
node bin/taproom.mjs doctor public:mcp:mcptap~travel~sandals
node bin/taproom.mjs fetch public:mcp:mcptap~travel~sandals --project .
node bin/taproom.mjs configure public:mcp:mcptap~travel~sandals --project . --client codex

plan reports runtime, transport, launch configuration, required environment, declared host requirements, detected Python or Node dependencies, lockfiles, and unresolved setup. fetch downloads the complete package and verifies every file hash without installing system dependencies. doctor checks the current platform, commands, and required environment variables. configure prints a reviewable client configuration; it does not modify client settings.

add combines doctor and fetch. It refuses MCP activation when requirements are incomplete or the local checks fail. An explicit fetch remains available after the operator reviews those warnings.

For dependency-aware activation, an MCP package's server.json declares host requirements alongside its existing runtime, launch, and environment fields:

{
  "requirements": {
    "platforms": ["windows"],
    "commands": [
      {"name": "uv", "version": ">=0.10"}
    ],
    "software": [
      {"name": "x64dbg", "version": "2026.05.27"}
    ],
    "setup": [
      "Copy the matching plugin into the x64dbg or x32dbg plugin directory."
    ]
  }
}

Supported platform values are any, linux, macos, and windows. commands are checked on PATH; software and setup are presented as manual verification items. If requirements is absent, Taproom reports the manifest as incomplete and points the operator to the included README and dependency files.

Project installs go to <project>/.agents/skills/. Global installs default to ~/.agents/skills/; set TAPROOM_SKILL_HOME to target another agent's skill directory. Existing skills are never replaced unless --force is supplied.

MCP tools

• list_taps()

• search_capabilities(query, kind?, tap?, limit?)

• inspect_capability(capability_id)

• plan_mcp_server(capability_id)

Skills are also available through FastMCP's standard skill resources. Search is implemented over capability metadata because FastMCP's BM25 search transform indexes tools rather than resources.

Repository map

• src/taproom/ contains catalog discovery, ranking, and the FastMCP service.

• src/taproom/packages.py builds file manifests and MCP dependency plans.

• bin/taproom.mjs is the dependency-free local installer.

• tests/ covers catalog identity, manifests, search, and CLI installation.

• assets/ contains the project artwork.

Test

uv run python -m unittest discover -s tests
npm test

License

MIT. See LICENSE.