The latest articles on DEV Community by Leroy Jenkins (@leroy_jenkins_951c84b2838). https://dev.to/leroy_jenkins_951c84b2838 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4124849%2Ffe431b44-538a-4c15-8ed4-9ce17b6085d6.png https://dev.to/leroy_jenkins_951c84b2838 en Leroy Jenkins Mon, 14 Sep 2026 16:20:55 +0000 https://dev.to/leroy_jenkins_951c84b2838/i-counted-the-mcp-registry-101219-entries-are-31309-servers-and-23-have-no-source-repo-33a6 https://dev.to/leroy_jenkins_951c84b2838/i-counted-the-mcp-registry-101219-entries-are-31309-servers-and-23-have-no-source-repo-33a6 <p>Every "how many MCP servers exist" number I could find counts registry entries. The official Model Context Protocol registry keeps every historical version of every server, so the entry count and the server count are different things. I pulled all of it and did the arithmetic.</p> <h2> Method </h2> <ul> <li>Source: the public registry API, every record by cursor pagination, on 14 September 2026.</li> <li>Deduplication: one record per server name, keeping the latest version.</li> <li>Hosts: parsed from the declared remote URLs.</li> <li>Metadata only. I never connected to a server, so "declares an HTTPS endpoint" is not the same as "up" or "safe".</li> </ul> <h2> The numbers </h2> <div class="table-wrapper-paragraph"><table> <thead> <tr> <th>Figure</th> <th>Value</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Raw registry entries</td> <td>101,219</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Distinct servers (latest version per name)</td> <td>31,309</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Entries that are superseded versions</td> <td>69% (3.23x inflation)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Servers with no source repository</td> <td>7,090 (22.6%)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Remote-only servers with no repository</td> <td>6,484 (20.7%)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Remote / package / both / neither</td> <td>18,984 / 13,427 / 1,516 / 414</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Servers sharing a hostname with 50+ others</td> <td>5,460 (17.4%)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Top three hosts combined</td> <td>4,525 servers (14.5% of everything)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Distinct publishers</td> <td>18,500</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Publishers with exactly one server</td> <td>16,594 (89.7%)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Marked deprecated</td> <td>334</td> </tr> <tr> <td>New servers first seen, Sep 2025</td> <td>456</td> </tr> <tr> <td>New servers first seen, Aug 2026</td> <td>6,673</td> </tr> </tbody> </table></div> <h2> What this means if you are choosing servers for an agent </h2> <p><strong>Version inflation.</strong> Any count of registry entries overstates the ecosystem by 3.2x. If a directory, a benchmark or a pitch deck says "100k MCP servers", it counted versions.</p> <p><strong>Auditability.</strong> One server in five is remote-only with no repository. There is no code to read; the only way to find out what it does is to connect to it. If your policy is "review before you allow", a fifth of the registry is unreviewable by construction.</p> <p><strong>Concentration.</strong> 17.4% of servers share a hostname with at least fifty others, and three hosts front 14.5% of the entire registry. Some of that is legitimate gateways. Some looks like bulk registration. Either way, "which host is this really talking to" is a better question than "which publisher is listed".</p> <p><strong>Growth.</strong> New servers per month went from 456 to 6,673 in a year. Whatever review process you have today will not scale to next year's registry by hand.</p> <h2> Check a server before you trust it </h2> <ul> <li>Live totals, no key needed: <a href="https://api.marklode.com/v1/stats" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://api.marklode.com/v1/stats</a> </li> <li>Look up one server name or one publisher namespace (free tier, 1,000 calls a month): <a href="https://rapidapi.com/thearchitect0x/api/marklode-verify" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://rapidapi.com/thearchitect0x/api/marklode-verify</a> </li> <li>Pull the whole deduplicated dataset yourself: <a href="https://apify.com/thearchitect0x/mcp-registry-scraper" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://apify.com/thearchitect0x/mcp-registry-scraper</a> </li> </ul> <p>I refresh the census monthly and will post the deltas. Corrections and questions about method are welcome in the comments.</p> mcp ai api data