registry/internal/service/registry_service.go
Bob Dickinson fc88cf0870
Enhanced server.json validation (phase 1) (#636)
Added schema validation and support for exhaustive and more detailed
validation to existing validators. Added new `mcp-publisher validate`
command. No change to any existing tests or behavior other than the new
command.

## Motivation and Context

Many currently published servers fail schema validation. Of those that
pass, many have semantic/logical errors or other errors that make them
impossible to configure, or their configuration when applied doesn't
generate correct MCP server configuration (per their own documentation).

To address this, we need better tooling to validate servers and to
inform server publishers of errors, issues, and best practices in a way
that is clear and actionable, both during server development and at time
of publishing.

I have started a discussion about the broader topic:
https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/discussions/635

There is also a fairly detailed document describing the design,
architecture, implementation, future plans, etc. See [Enhanced
Validation Design](docs/explanations/proposed-enhanced-validation.md)

This PR is the first step in the process of improving validation. It
adds schema validation and updates all existing validators to use a new
model that allows them to track context and return rich and exhaustive
results. This has been done in a way that is backward compatible
(ValidateServerJSON is unchanged as are all existing validation unit
tests).

There is a new `mcp-publisher` command called `validate` that is
currenty the only place that schema validation and enhanced
(exhaustive/rich) validation results are exposed.

### Changes

Internal Validation improvements
- Schema validation has been implemented and is available as an option
in validation methods (defaults to off)
- Existing validators track the JSON path (context) of the attribute
they're evaluating, passing it to any child validators
- Existing validators are exhaustive (return all issues, not failing
fast on the first error)
- Existing validators return rich validation results, including:
  - type (schema, semantic, linter)
  - severity (error, warn, info)
  - path (JSON path to server.json element)
  - reference (to the schema element or rule that triggered the result)
  - message (currently the same as previous error message)

A new `validate` command has been added to `mcp-publisher` so publishers
can evaluate their server.json before publishing
- Includes new schema validation and previous semantic validation
- Shows full details of all issues encountered during validation

### Usage

Given a server.json that looks like this:

```json
{
  "$schema": "https://static.modelcontextprotocol.io/schemas/2025-09-29/server.schema.json",
  "name": "io.github.BobDickinson/registry",
  "description": "An MCP server that provides [describe what your server does]",
  "repository": {
    "url": "",
    "source": ""
  },
  "version": "=1.0.0",
  "packages": [
    {
      "registryType": "oci",
      "registryBaseUrl": "https://docker.io",
      "identifier": "registry",
      "version": "1.0.0",
      "transport": {
        "type": "sse"
      },
      "packageArguments": [
        {
          "type": "named",
          "name": "--mode",
          "description": "Operation mode",
          "format": "foo"
        }
      ],
      "environmentVariables": [
        {
          "description": "Your API key for the service",
          "isRequired": true,
          "format": "string",
          "isSecret": true,
          "name": "YOUR_API_KEY"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
```

Run the command: 

`mcp-publisher validate server.json`

Which will produce the output:

```bash
❌ Validation failed with 5 issue(s):

1. [error] packages.0.packageArguments.0.format (schema)
   value must be one of "string", "number", "boolean", "filepath"
   Reference: #/definitions/Input/properties/format/enum from: [#/definitions/ServerDetail]/properties/packages/items/[#/definitions/Package]/properties/packageArguments/items/[#/definitions/Argument]/else/[#/definitions/NamedArgument]/allOf/0/[#/definitions/InputWithVariables]/allOf/0/[#/definitions/Input]/properties/format/enum

2. [error] packages.0.transport (schema)
   missing required fields: 'url'
   Reference: #/definitions/SseTransport/required from: [#/definitions/ServerDetail]/properties/packages/items/[#/definitions/Package]/properties/transport/else/else/[#/definitions/SseTransport]/required

3. [error] repository.url (schema)
   '' has invalid format 'uri'
   Reference: #/definitions/Repository/properties/url/format from: [#/definitions/ServerDetail]/properties/repository/[#/definitions/Repository]/properties/url/format

4. [error] version (semantic)
   version must be a specific version, not a range: "=1.0.0"
   Reference: version-looks-like-range

5. [error] packages[0].transport.url (semantic)
   url is required for sse transport type
   Reference: streamable-transport-url-required

Error: validation failed
```

Note in the results above:
- All errors contain the JSON path of the triggering element from
server.json.
- The first three errors are schema errors detected during schema
validation. The `Reference` provided contains an absolute path to the
schema rule that was violated, followed by the full schema path that
enforced that rule (with $ref redirect values substited and enclosed in
square brackets).
- The error messages provided by the existing semantic validators are
exactly the same as the previous error messages those validators
produced.

In the final solution we would remove semantic validators that are
redundant to schema validation (as in number 5 above). We have the
option to use the structured data produced by schema validation to
replace the generic schema validation message with a more descriptive
message if that is an issue (in particular, if the only argument for an
ad-hoc validator is that is produces a better/cleaner message, we would
just move that message creation code to the schema error result
formatter and special case it as opposed to having a redundant
validator).

### What's Next

If this general direction is supported and this PR is accepted, a fast
follow would include:

- Add new validators (infliuenced by observed issues) for both semantic
errors and best practices
- Require passing schema validation (in addition to improved semantic
validation) in order to publish
- Remove existing validation code that is redundant to schema validation
(ensuring error messages remain intelligible)
- Update validation client code and tests to handle the new rich return
types natively

### Issues

Schema validation requires embedding the `server.schema.json` file into
the validators package via `go:embed`, which is restricted from
embedding files outside of the package. For this reason we copy the
schema file into a schema subdir (via a prep target in the makefile) and
we .gitignore it. I tried cleaning up the copy in the make clean target,
but then the linter would complain about the embed target being missing
if it wasn't there during development. I also considered just checking
in the schema file and assuming a separate workflow for updating the
embedded schema file, but it's not clear what that workflow would be or
how it would be maintained. I'm open to a different approach, but the
schema file does need to be embedded somehow for schema validation to
work.

## How Has This Been Tested?
All existing validation tests pass, new tests implemented and all pass.

## Breaking Changes
No breaking changes, no behavior change except new `validate` command

## Types of changes
<!-- What types of changes does your code introduce? Put an `x` in all
the boxes that apply: -->
- [ ] Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
- [X] New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
- [ ] Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing
functionality to change)
- [ ] Documentation update

## Checklist
<!-- Go over all the following points, and put an `x` in all the boxes
that apply. -->
- [X] I have read the [MCP
Documentation](https://modelcontextprotocol.io)
- [X] My code follows the repository's style guidelines
- [X] New and existing tests pass locally
- [X] I have added appropriate error handling
- [X] I have added or updated documentation as needed

---------

Co-authored-by: GitHub Action <action@github.com>
2026-01-16 00:49:39 +02:00

245 lines
8.4 KiB
Go

package service
import (
"context"
"errors"
"fmt"
"time"
"github.com/jackc/pgx/v5"
"github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/internal/config"
"github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/internal/database"
"github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/internal/validators"
apiv0 "github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/pkg/api/v0"
"github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/pkg/model"
)
const maxServerVersionsPerServer = 10000
// registryServiceImpl implements the RegistryService interface using our Database
type registryServiceImpl struct {
db database.Database
cfg *config.Config
}
// NewRegistryService creates a new registry service with the provided database
func NewRegistryService(db database.Database, cfg *config.Config) RegistryService {
return &registryServiceImpl{
db: db,
cfg: cfg,
}
}
// ListServers returns registry entries with cursor-based pagination and optional filtering
func (s *registryServiceImpl) ListServers(ctx context.Context, filter *database.ServerFilter, cursor string, limit int) ([]*apiv0.ServerResponse, string, error) {
// If limit is not set or negative, use a default limit
if limit <= 0 {
limit = 30
}
// Use the database's ListServers method with pagination and filtering
serverRecords, nextCursor, err := s.db.ListServers(ctx, nil, filter, cursor, limit)
if err != nil {
return nil, "", err
}
return serverRecords, nextCursor, nil
}
// GetServerByName retrieves the latest version of a server by its server name
func (s *registryServiceImpl) GetServerByName(ctx context.Context, serverName string) (*apiv0.ServerResponse, error) {
serverRecord, err := s.db.GetServerByName(ctx, nil, serverName)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
return serverRecord, nil
}
// GetServerByNameAndVersion retrieves a specific version of a server by server name and version
func (s *registryServiceImpl) GetServerByNameAndVersion(ctx context.Context, serverName string, version string) (*apiv0.ServerResponse, error) {
serverRecord, err := s.db.GetServerByNameAndVersion(ctx, nil, serverName, version)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
return serverRecord, nil
}
// GetAllVersionsByServerName retrieves all versions of a server by server name
func (s *registryServiceImpl) GetAllVersionsByServerName(ctx context.Context, serverName string) ([]*apiv0.ServerResponse, error) {
serverRecords, err := s.db.GetAllVersionsByServerName(ctx, nil, serverName)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
return serverRecords, nil
}
// CreateServer creates a new server version
func (s *registryServiceImpl) CreateServer(ctx context.Context, req *apiv0.ServerJSON) (*apiv0.ServerResponse, error) {
// Wrap the entire operation in a transaction
return database.InTransactionT(ctx, s.db, func(ctx context.Context, tx pgx.Tx) (*apiv0.ServerResponse, error) {
return s.createServerInTransaction(ctx, tx, req)
})
}
// createServerInTransaction contains the actual CreateServer logic within a transaction
func (s *registryServiceImpl) createServerInTransaction(ctx context.Context, tx pgx.Tx, req *apiv0.ServerJSON) (*apiv0.ServerResponse, error) {
// Validate the request
if err := validators.ValidatePublishRequest(ctx, *req, s.cfg); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
publishTime := time.Now()
serverJSON := *req
// Acquire advisory lock to prevent concurrent publishes of the same server
if err := s.db.AcquirePublishLock(ctx, tx, serverJSON.Name); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
// Check for duplicate remote URLs
if err := s.validateNoDuplicateRemoteURLs(ctx, tx, serverJSON); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
// Check we haven't exceeded the maximum versions allowed for a server
versionCount, err := s.db.CountServerVersions(ctx, tx, serverJSON.Name)
if err != nil && !errors.Is(err, database.ErrNotFound) {
return nil, err
}
if versionCount >= maxServerVersionsPerServer {
return nil, database.ErrMaxServersReached
}
// Check this isn't a duplicate version
versionExists, err := s.db.CheckVersionExists(ctx, tx, serverJSON.Name, serverJSON.Version)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
if versionExists {
return nil, database.ErrInvalidVersion
}
// Get current latest version to determine if new version should be latest
currentLatest, err := s.db.GetCurrentLatestVersion(ctx, tx, serverJSON.Name)
if err != nil && !errors.Is(err, database.ErrNotFound) {
return nil, err
}
// Determine if this version should be marked as latest
isNewLatest := true
if currentLatest != nil {
var existingPublishedAt time.Time
if currentLatest.Meta.Official != nil {
existingPublishedAt = currentLatest.Meta.Official.PublishedAt
}
isNewLatest = CompareVersions(
serverJSON.Version,
currentLatest.Server.Version,
publishTime,
existingPublishedAt,
) > 0
}
// Unmark old latest version if needed
if isNewLatest && currentLatest != nil {
if err := s.db.UnmarkAsLatest(ctx, tx, serverJSON.Name); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
}
// Create metadata for the new server
officialMeta := &apiv0.RegistryExtensions{
Status: model.StatusActive, /* New versions are active by default */
PublishedAt: publishTime,
UpdatedAt: publishTime,
IsLatest: isNewLatest,
}
// Insert new server version
return s.db.CreateServer(ctx, tx, &serverJSON, officialMeta)
}
// validateNoDuplicateRemoteURLs checks that no other server is using the same remote URLs
func (s *registryServiceImpl) validateNoDuplicateRemoteURLs(ctx context.Context, tx pgx.Tx, serverDetail apiv0.ServerJSON) error {
// Check each remote URL in the new server for conflicts
for _, remote := range serverDetail.Remotes {
// Use filter to find servers with this remote URL
filter := &database.ServerFilter{RemoteURL: &remote.URL}
conflictingServers, _, err := s.db.ListServers(ctx, tx, filter, "", 1000)
if err != nil {
return fmt.Errorf("failed to check remote URL conflict: %w", err)
}
// Check if any conflicting server has a different name
for _, conflictingServer := range conflictingServers {
if conflictingServer.Server.Name != serverDetail.Name {
return fmt.Errorf("remote URL %s is already used by server %s", remote.URL, conflictingServer.Server.Name)
}
}
}
return nil
}
// UpdateServer updates an existing server with new details
func (s *registryServiceImpl) UpdateServer(ctx context.Context, serverName, version string, req *apiv0.ServerJSON, newStatus *string) (*apiv0.ServerResponse, error) {
// Wrap the entire operation in a transaction
return database.InTransactionT(ctx, s.db, func(ctx context.Context, tx pgx.Tx) (*apiv0.ServerResponse, error) {
return s.updateServerInTransaction(ctx, tx, serverName, version, req, newStatus)
})
}
// updateServerInTransaction contains the actual UpdateServer logic within a transaction
func (s *registryServiceImpl) updateServerInTransaction(ctx context.Context, tx pgx.Tx, serverName, version string, req *apiv0.ServerJSON, newStatus *string) (*apiv0.ServerResponse, error) {
// Get current server to check if it's deleted or being deleted
currentServer, err := s.db.GetServerByNameAndVersion(ctx, tx, serverName, version)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
// Skip registry validation if:
// 1. Server is currently deleted, OR
// 2. Server is being set to deleted status
currentlyDeleted := currentServer.Meta.Official != nil && currentServer.Meta.Official.Status == model.StatusDeleted
beingDeleted := newStatus != nil && *newStatus == string(model.StatusDeleted)
skipRegistryValidation := currentlyDeleted || beingDeleted
// Validate the request, potentially skipping registry validation for deleted servers
if err := validators.ValidateUpdateRequest(ctx, *req, s.cfg, skipRegistryValidation); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
// Acquire advisory lock to prevent concurrent edits of servers with same name
if err := s.db.AcquirePublishLock(ctx, tx, serverName); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
// Merge the request with the current server, preserving metadata
updatedServer := *req
// Check for duplicate remote URLs using the updated server
if err := s.validateNoDuplicateRemoteURLs(ctx, tx, updatedServer); err != nil {
return nil, err
}
// Update server in database
updatedServerResponse, err := s.db.UpdateServer(ctx, tx, serverName, version, &updatedServer)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
// Handle status change if provided
if newStatus != nil {
updatedWithStatus, err := s.db.SetServerStatus(ctx, tx, serverName, version, *newStatus)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
return updatedWithStatus, nil
}
return updatedServerResponse, nil
}