## Summary
Removes the `displayName` field from **MCP Catalog** entries in
`docs/discovery.md`. An MCP Catalog entry now requires only
`identifier`, `mediaType`, and `url` — there is no human-readable-name
field on the entry at all.
Resolves#14.
## Rationale
Issue #14 originally proposed making `displayName` **optional**, gated
on the upstream AI Catalog spec doing the same. That gate resolved —
**Agent-Card/ai-catalog#39** ("make Catalog Entry displayName optional
(not required), ADR 0016") **merged** 2026-06-26:
https://github.com/Agent-Card/ai-catalog/pull/39.
But for the **MCP-scoped** catalog we can go one step further and drop
the field entirely, which is cleaner:
- Every MCP Catalog entry references a **Server Card**, and the Server
Card's `title` is the source of truth for the server's human-readable
name. A client fetches that card anyway (the discovery flow retrieves
the card at `url` for connection details), so it can read the name
straight from the card.
- Documenting `displayName` on the entry — even as optional — only
invites publishers to duplicate a name that already lives in the card,
where it can drift out of sync. This is the general-AI-Catalog concern
(some non-MCP/non-A2A artifacts have no baked-in name) not applying to
us: an MCP entry *always* points at a card that carries its own `title`.
This still **preserves the drop-in-subset guarantee**. AI Catalog makes
`displayName` optional (ADR 0016), so an MCP Catalog entry that omits it
remains valid as-is inside a full AI Catalog document. The two specs
agree; MCP simply declines to use the field and defers to the Server
Card's `title`. The doc states this explicitly so the intentional
omission is clear rather than looking like an oversight.
## What changed (`docs/discovery.md` only)
- **Catalog Entry table**: removed the `displayName` row. Entry now
lists only `identifier`, `mediaType`, `url` (all required).
- **Prose**: replaced the required/optional language with a paragraph
explaining that the entry carries no name field and clients read the
name from the referenced Server Card's `title`, plus a paragraph
documenting the AI-Catalog compatibility (optional `displayName`
upstream → MCP entry is still a drop-in subset).
- **Examples**: removed `displayName` from the single-server example and
from all three entries in the multiple-servers example.
Docs/spec-text only. No TypeScript or JSON Schema changes were needed —
the catalog entry shape lives entirely in `discovery.md`;
`schema.ts`/`schema.json` describe the Server Card itself and never
encoded the catalog entry's `displayName`, so there was no schema
coupling to update.
## Verification
- [x] `npm run check` passes (schema.json up to date; `tsc --noEmit`
clean) — docs-only diff
- [x] `npm run validate` passes (all 7 Server Card examples validate as
expected)
- [x] `npm run format:check` clean for `docs/discovery.md` (ran
`prettier --write`; remaining warnings are AO-injected untracked files
not present in CI)
- [x] Whole-file `displayName` sweep: the field is gone from the table
and every example; the only remaining mentions are the deliberate
AI-Catalog compatibility note explaining why MCP omits it — no
contradictory "required"/"optional-field" language remains
- [x] CI green on this PR (build, CodeQL, Analyze — see checks)
- [x] Independent fresh-eyes review performed via in-session subagent;
feedback addressed
---------
Co-authored-by: tadasant <peter@tadasant.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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