Question 1

What is an MCP server?

Accepted Answer

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard from Anthropic that lets AI assistants like Claude use external tools and data. An MCP server exposes a set of tools, for example "query this database" or "open this web page", that any MCP client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT and others) can call.

Question 2

What is the difference between local and remote MCP servers?

Accepted Answer

A local server runs on your machine and talks to the client over stdio; you install it with npx, uvx, Docker or from source. A remote server is hosted by the provider and you connect to it with a URL over Streamable HTTP, usually signing in with OAuth or an API key. Nothing to install.

Question 3

Are MCP servers free?

Accepted Answer

Most MCP servers are free and open source. Many of them connect to a service that needs an account or API key (for example GitHub, Slack or a search API), and some hosted servers charge per call. Each listing here is labelled Free, Free server with account needed, or Paid service, estimated from its description.

Question 4

How do I add an MCP server to Claude Code?

Accepted Answer

Use the claude mcp add command. For a remote server: claude mcp add --transport http . For a local npm package: claude mcp add -- npx -y . Every server page here has the exact command and an mcp.json snippet for other clients.

Question 5

Where does this directory get its data?

Accepted Answer

It merges the official MCP Registry, the modelcontextprotocol/servers reference servers and the largest community lists (punkpeye/awesome-mcp-servers, awesome-remote-mcp-servers and wong2/awesome-mcp-servers), de-duplicated by repository, and is refreshed regularly.

Question 6

How do I add my MCP server?

Accepted Answer

Submit it at claudecodeagents.com/mcp/submit, or have your agent POST it to /api/mcp/submit. Submissions are accepted automatically and go live straight away once a quick check confirms the repo or URL is a real MCP server.

MCP Server Directory

SHPBL

StarProof

Vibescan