Short answer: There are four places that matter for listing a remote MCP server, and only one of them is open to anyone today: the official MCP Registry. We published three servers there on 2026-10-31. The Claude Connectors Directory and the ChatGPT app directory are review-gated stores with long requirement lists, Google's Connected Apps Platform is a preview you apply to, and the rest of the sites that call themselves directories are mostly trackers you cannot list on by submitting. This is what each one needs, in the order we hit it, and the two things that stopped us.
## status
Where are we actually listed?
Only the official MCP Registry, so far. Claude and ChatGPT submissions are prepared but not submitted, and we have not applied to Google's preview yet. We are saying this first because most guides on this topic blur the line between what the author did and what they read. Everything below about the Claude, ChatGPT and Google requirements comes from their published docs as of late October 2026, and those change, so check the linked pages before you rely on a detail.
| Where | Our status | Open to anyone? |
|---|---|---|
| Official MCP Registry | Published, 3 servers, all active | Yes |
| Claude Connectors Directory | Prepared, not submitted | Yes, any paid Claude plan, then review |
| ChatGPT app directory | Prepared, not submitted | Yes, after organization verification, then review |
| Google Connected Apps Platform | Not applied yet | By application, in phases |
## registry
How do you publish to the official MCP Registry?
This is the one place with no review queue, and it is also what some third-party directories, PulseMCP among them, import from. Publishing is a command line job. You install mcp-publisher (it is on Homebrew), prove you control a domain, and publish a server.json.
Your namespace is the reverse of a domain you prove. Ours is advancelabs.dev, so our servers are dev.advancelabs/aeo-search, dev.advancelabs/aeo-visibility and dev.advancelabs/aeo-backlink. A remote hosted on a subdomain (ours are on aeo.advancelabs.dev) published fine under the apex namespace.
01Serve a public key at a well-known path
Generate an Ed25519 key pair and serve the public half as one line, v=MCPv1; k=ed25519; p=<base64>, at https://<your-domain>/.well-known/mcp-registry-auth. It must return 200 with no redirect, because the registry fetches it itself. A redirect to www or a trailing-slash rewrite is enough to fail the check.
02Log in with the private key
Run mcp-publisher login http --domain <your-domain> --private-key <hex>. This proves the namespace is yours.
03Write a server.json with a remotes entry
Point its $schema at https://static.modelcontextprotocol.io/schemas/2025-12-11/server.schema.json and add a remotes entry of type streamable-http with your endpoint URL. Keep the description under the cap: it is limited to 100 characters, and one of ours was 101 and failed our own pre-check.
04Publish
Run mcp-publisher publish server.json. The entry goes live as active, and you can fetch it back from the registry to confirm.
mcp-publisher login http --domain advancelabs.dev --private-key <hex>
mcp-publisher publish server.json## claude
What does the Claude Connectors Directory require?
Submission is at claude.ai/directory/manage and needs any paid Claude plan. The server must be public HTTPS, use OAuth 2.0 if it fronts an authenticated service (or no auth at all for public data), and every tool needs a title plus a readOnlyHint or destructiveHint annotation. You also supply a docs URL, a privacy policy URL, a support contact, an icon and a test account the reviewer can sign in with.
Two details are easy to miss. Hosted Claude apps authenticate through the callback https://claude.ai/api/mcp/auth_callback, while Claude Code uses a loopback redirect on any port. And the listing slug is permanent, so pick it deliberately. New listings are auto-scanned and shown as Community by default.
## chatgpt
What does the ChatGPT app directory require?
You submit from the OpenAI Platform dashboard after testing the server in Developer Mode, and the bar is higher than for Claude. It needs organization verification, a public HTTPS MCP server, and website, support, privacy and terms URLs. You verify the domain by serving a token at /.well-known/openai-apps-challenge.
Review is evidence-based: five positive and three negative test cases, a reviewer video walkthrough, and a reviewer test account that has no MFA. The portal's auth options are none, OAuth, or mixed, so a flow built around pasted API keys does not fit. OAuth callbacks are https://chatgpt.com/connector/oauth/{callback_id} and the legacy https://chatgpt.com/connector_platform_oauth_redirect.
What about Google's Connected Apps Platform?
Google announced a preview on 2026-10-28. Apps can run in AI Mode in Search and in the Gemini app, remote MCP servers need OAuth 2.1, and apps are managed in the Google Connected Console. Access is by application at developers.google.com/connected-apps and is opening in phases, with one report saying US developers go first. We have applied and have nothing to report beyond that.
## others
What about Smithery, Glama, mcp.so and the rest?
They differ in kind. Smithery can publish by URL from its CLI. Glama indexes servers from GitHub automatically and lets you claim yours with a glama.json. mcp.so is a web form. Treat these as discovery extras, and do them after the registry, since some import from it anyway.
Trackers are not stores
Many sites that look like directories only track servers that exist elsewhere. You cannot list anywhere by submitting to them, so do not count one as a listing. The places that make a server installable from inside an assistant are the registry and the two review-gated stores.
## blockers
What blocked us?
Two things, both ours, and both would have failed review on the Claude and ChatGPT side.
- Our OAuth server only accepted loopback redirects: That was deliberate. Every allowed redirect is a party trusted with your users' Google authorization codes, so we kept the list at loopback only. Hosted clients cannot use loopback, so we added exactly three callbacks: the Claude one and the two ChatGPT ones listed above, and nothing else. Tests refuse near-misses: http, subdomains, lookalike hosts, an extra path, a query string and a fragment.
- None of our 32 tools carried annotations: Claude requires every tool to declare whether it is read-only or destructive, and ours said nothing. All 32 are read-only. We made the annotations field required in our shared tool type, so a new tool cannot ship without stating whether it writes.
The registry needed neither fix. If you only want the registry listing, you can ship today. The stores are where an OAuth policy and tool metadata you never thought about become gating.
## try_ours
Can you try the servers we published?
Yes. aeo-search has 20 tools over Google Search Console, GA4 and Bing Webmaster and signs in with Google. aeo-visibility has 5 tools that check whether AI answer engines cite a site, and you supply your own Perplexity key. aeo-backlink has 7 tools for mentions, link prospects, competitor link sources and outreach drafts. All 32 are read-only. To add the first one in Claude Code, run the line below and then /mcp to authenticate.
Connection details for every clientclaude mcp add --transport http aeo-search https://aeo.advancelabs.dev/api/mcp/search/mcp## faq
Where can I list my MCP server?
The official MCP Registry is open to anyone and needs a domain you can prove. The Claude Connectors Directory and the ChatGPT app directory are review-gated stores. Google's Connected Apps Platform is a preview you apply to. Smithery, Glama and mcp.so are extra discovery surfaces.
How do I publish to the official MCP Registry?
Install mcp-publisher, serve an Ed25519 public key at /.well-known/mcp-registry-auth on your domain, log in with mcp-publisher login http using the private key, then run mcp-publisher publish on a server.json with a streamable-http remotes entry. Keep the description under 100 characters.
What does the Claude Connectors Directory require?
A public HTTPS server, OAuth 2.0 if it fronts an authenticated service, a title and a readOnlyHint or destructiveHint on every tool, plus docs, privacy policy, support contact, an icon and a reviewer test account. Submit at claude.ai/directory/manage on any paid Claude plan.
What does the ChatGPT app directory require?
Organization verification, a public HTTPS MCP server, website, support, privacy and terms URLs, domain verification at /.well-known/openai-apps-challenge, five positive and three negative test cases, a reviewer video, and a test account without MFA. Auth is none, OAuth or mixed.
Is submitting to an MCP tracker site the same as getting listed?
No. Trackers index servers that already exist elsewhere, so there is nothing to submit to. A real listing is the official registry or a store such as the Claude or ChatGPT directory.
## sources
## related_guides
## want_it_done_for_you
Want this done and re-checked every month? Our monthly maintenance re-runs your buying questions in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google, ships the fixes that keep you out of the answers, and reports what moved. Or run the free check on your site first at advancelabs.dev/tools/audit.
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