How to Publish an MCP Server to the Official Registry and npm: A Step-by-Step Guide

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is rapidly becoming the standard for connecting AI agents (like Claude, Cursor, and Windsurf) to external data sources and tools. If you've built an MCP server, the next critical step is distribution. In building SkillFlow — an open marketplace for AI agent skills — we had to navigate the exact process of publishing our own MCP server to make it accessible to developers worldwide. In this guide, I'll walk you through the exact steps to publish your MCP server to both npm and the Official MCP Registry , ensuring it's easily discoverable and installable via npx . 1. Preparing Your MCP Server for npm Before submitting to any registry, your server needs to be easily executable. The best way to distribute a TypeScript/JavaScript MCP server is via npm using npx . Update your package.json You need to ensure your package is configured correctly for CLI execution. Add the bin field to your package.json : { "name" : "your-mcp-server-name" , "version" : "1.0.0" ,