How I Got 1,600 Weekly npm Downloads with MCP Tools

In January 2025, I published a package called Agent Toolbelt to npm. It's an MCP server — a collection of developer utility tools that Claude can use. UUID generation, base64 encoding, JSON formatting, timestamp conversion. Nothing groundbreaking. The kind of tools every developer reaches for daily. Within weeks, it was getting over 1,600 weekly downloads. npx agent-toolbelt One command. Claude sees the tools. Developers use them. That's the entire distribution story. I'm not telling you this to brag about download numbers — 1,600 is modest by npm standards. I'm telling you because it illustrates something about where we are in the MCP ecosystem: the bar for impact is low, and the surface area for opportunity is massive. The ecosystem right now Search npm for MCP servers. You'll find a few hundred packages. Now think about every category of software tool that exists: DevOps, databases, APIs, file management, cloud infrastructure, communication, analytics, CRM, project management, desig