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Rumblingb
Rumblingb

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MCP Install Friction Is Killing Adoption. We Measured It.

#chrome #mcp #devtools #buildinpublic

The MCP ecosystem shipped 26 servers last month. Almost nobody installed them.

I know because I counted: 11 installs on my most popular server. 61 products. One Chrome extension that removes the install barrier.

The problem isn’t quality. It’s the 4-step install:

  1. Find npx command
  2. Open terminal
  3. Edit JSON config
  4. Restart client

Step 3 is where developers leave. JSON config files aren’t a product. They’re a gate.

The numbers

  • Email Verify MCP: 29 npm downloads/week, 11 Smithery installs
  • Agent Wallet MCP: 7 downloads/week
  • AgentPay Sentinel: 3 downloads/week

92 total npm downloads/week across the namespace. Real users who found the product. Install friction converted 92 interested people into ~11 actual installs.

That’s an 88% drop before the first use.

What we shipped

MCP Bridge: a Chrome extension that installs any MCP server in one click. Browse. Click Install. Done.

Free tier: 3 installs. Pro: $9/month unlimited.

If install friction is killing your MCP server adoption, the fix isn’t better docs. It’s removing the install step entirely.

61 products. 26 MCP servers. Building in public at agentpay.so.
All tools free: smithery.ai/servers/vishar-rumbling

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