Two real defects, plus the CLI reference claims that go with them.
## 1. ECDSA P-384 login instructions cannot work
Every "ECDSA P-384" tab ran the *identical* command to the Ed25519 tab.
Since `--algorithm` defaults to ed25519
([login.go:100](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/blob/main/cmd/publisher/commands/login.go#L100)),
a 96-hex key is rejected outright. Verified against a freshly generated
P-384 key:
```
$ mcp-publisher login dns --domain=example.com --private-key=$KEY
Signing in process using key algorithm ed25519
Error: failed to get token: failed to sign timestamp: invalid seed length: expected 32 bytes, got 48
$ mcp-publisher login dns --algorithm ecdsap384 --domain=example.com --private-key=$KEY
Signing in process using key algorithm ecdsap384
Expected proof record: # works
```
`--algorithm` is registered at
[login.go:129](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/blob/main/cmd/publisher/commands/login.go#L129)
and described correctly by the CLI's own help, but `grep -rn algorithm
docs/` had **zero** hits for it. Anyone following the ECDSA path in the
docs hit that error with nothing to tell them why.
Fixed at all four in-process ECDSA sites (2 in `authentication.mdx`, 2
in `cli/commands.md`), with a note that cloud signing providers derive
the algorithm from the key itself so the flag does not apply to them.
## 2. `mcp-publisher validate --help` was broken
```
$ mcp-publisher validate --help
Unknown command: validate
...
Use 'mcp-publisher <command> --help' for more information about a command.
```
It printed the very instruction that had just failed. `main.go`
intercepted `--help` for all subcommands and called `printCommandHelp`,
whose switch had no `validate` case — making `ValidateCommand`'s own
help block
([validate.go:120-129](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/blob/main/cmd/publisher/commands/validate.go#L120))
unreachable.
Rather than paste a third copy of the help text, `printCommandHelp` now
returns whether it handled the command, and the caller falls through to
normal dispatch when it did not. Commands own their own `--help`, and
any future command with this shape works automatically.
| Command | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| `validate --help` | `Unknown command`, exit 0 | prints its help, exit
0 |
| `publish --help` | works | works |
| `init -h` | works | works |
| `bogus --help` | `Unknown command`, exit 0 | `Unknown command`, **exit
1** |
## 3. CLI reference corrections
- **`--registry` is not global.** It exists only on `login`; other
commands read the URL from the stored token. `publish --registry=URL`
silently treats the flag as the `server.json` path.
`cmd/publisher/README.md` had exactly this broken example.
- **`--token` was undocumented** despite `github-actions.mdx:123`
depending on it. Now documented, noting it is `login github` only.
- **`init` takes no flags** and does not prompt; it writes `TODO:`
placeholders. The reference said `init [options]` and "Prompts for
missing required fields".
- **Refreshed the `--help` transcript** in `quickstart.mdx`, which
listed only 4 of 6 commands. Now byte-for-byte identical to real output
(diffed).
- **Added `validate`** to the command list in `cmd/publisher/README.md`.
## Verification
`go build` and `go test ./cmd/...` pass. All four help paths exercised
with exit codes checked. The 23 `goconst` findings in `validate_test.go`
are pre-existing — identical count on pristine `main`, none in
`main.go`. Quickstart transcript diffed against real output.
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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