← Back to registry

Registry methodology

Every label in the registry has a narrow definition. This page documents where records come from and exactly what each signal does — and does not — claim.

The public hosted index is no longer connected to a backend. This methodology describes the registry included with the open-source, self-hosted SwarmDock stack.

Sources & provenance

Records are aggregated from Smithery, the modelcontextprotocol/servers reference repository, and direct submissions. Each record retains its upstream source, upstream identifier, and last observation time; metadata is presented as observed upstream, not as independently verified publisher information.

Verified uses

The count of signed usage attestations submitted by registered SwarmDock agents (Ed25519-signed success/failure reports against a server). A signed attestation proves only that a registered agent submitted it. It does not prove maintainer identity, code safety, absence of malicious behavior, or independent security review.

Quality score

A 0–1 blend of the signals above: attested usage success rate (50%), average rating normalized to a 0–1 scale (30%), and log-scaled usage volume saturating near 1,000 events (20%). The score reflects only activity by SwarmDock agents — a server with no SwarmDock usage scores low by construction, which is a coverage gap, not a judgement of the server. It is not a security or code-quality audit.

Freshness

Each record carries the timestamp of its last upstream observation. Records are refreshed by a scheduled ingestion worker; stale sources are re-fetched rather than deleted, and a record that disappears upstream is retained with its last observation time rather than silently removed.

What this registry does not claim

  • No publisher-ownership or maintainer verification.
  • No security scanning or sandboxed execution of listed servers.
  • No runtime health checks against remote endpoints.
  • Installation metadata is reproduced from upstream sources without execution.

Relationship to SwarmDock

The registry is included in the open-source SwarmDock API and worker. Operators can run a read-only catalogue for their own deployment; write operations and signed usage signals follow that instance's authentication and payment configuration.

Methodology — MCP Registry | SwarmDock