mcp-manifest-spec/schema/v0.1.json

{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "$id": "https://mcp-manifest.dev/schema/v0.1.json",
  "title": "MCP Manifest",
  "description": "Machine-readable manifest for MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers. Describes installation, configuration, and client wiring.",
  "type": "object",
  "required": ["version", "server", "install", "transport"],
  "properties": {
    "$schema": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "JSON Schema reference"
    },
    "version": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "Spec version",
      "enum": ["0.1"]
    },
    "server": {
      "type": "object",
      "description": "Server metadata",
      "required": ["name", "displayName", "description", "version"],
      "properties": {
        "name": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Unique identifier, lowercase, hyphens allowed",
          "pattern": "^[a-z][a-z0-9-]*$"
        },
        "displayName": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Human-readable name"
        },
        "description": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "One-line description"
        },
        "version": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Server version (semver)"
        },
        "author": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Author or organization"
        },
        "homepage": {
          "type": "string",
          "format": "uri",
          "description": "URL to project homepage"
        },
        "repository": {
          "type": "string",
          "format": "uri",
          "description": "URL to source repository"
        },
        "license": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "SPDX license identifier"
        },
        "icon": {
          "type": "string",
          "format": "uri",
          "description": "URL to the server's icon (square, PNG or SVG recommended). Clients SHOULD fall back to a default MCP icon when absent."
        },
        "keywords": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": { "type": "string" },
          "description": "Discovery tags"
        }
      },
      "additionalProperties": false
    },
    "install": {
      "type": "array",
      "description": "Installation methods, ordered by priority (lower = preferred)",
      "minItems": 1,
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "required": ["method", "package", "command"],
        "properties": {
          "method": {
            "type": "string",
            "enum": ["dotnet-tool", "npm", "pip", "cargo", "binary", "docker"],
            "description": "Installation method"
          },
          "package": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Package name or image"
          },
          "source": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Custom registry URL"
          },
          "command": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "CLI command name after installation"
          },
          "priority": {
            "type": "integer",
            "default": 0,
            "description": "Lower = preferred"
          }
        },
        "additionalProperties": false
      }
    },
    "transport": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": ["stdio", "sse", "streamable-http"],
      "description": "How the client connects to this server"
    },
    "endpoint": {
      "type": "string",
      "format": "uri",
      "description": "URL for sse/streamable-http transports"
    },
    "config": {
      "type": "array",
      "description": "Configuration parameters the server accepts",
      "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "required": ["key", "description", "type"],
        "properties": {
          "key": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Parameter name"
          },
          "description": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "What this parameter does"
          },
          "type": {
            "type": "string",
            "enum": ["string", "boolean", "number", "path", "url", "secret"],
            "description": "Value type"
          },
          "required": {
            "type": "boolean",
            "default": false,
            "description": "Whether this parameter is required"
          },
          "default": {
            "description": "Default value"
          },
          "env_var": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Environment variable name that supplies this value"
          },
          "arg": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "CLI argument name (e.g. '--api-key')"
          },
          "prompt": {
            "type": "string",
            "description": "Human-readable prompt for interactive setup"
          }
        },
        "additionalProperties": false
      }
    },
    "scopes": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "type": "string",
        "enum": ["global", "project", "both"]
      },
      "description": "Where this server is typically configured"
    },
    "settings_template": {
      "type": "object",
      "description": "Pre-built template for client MCP server configuration. Variables use ${key} syntax.",
      "properties": {
        "command": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "args": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": { "type": "string" }
        }
      },
      "additionalProperties": false
    }
  },
  "additionalProperties": false
}