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adam jones 2e7108d366

Big docs tidy up in preparation for launch (#364 )

## Motivation and Context
Docs currently don't have very clear organisation, and don't explain
core flows.

This fixes #89 (although we still might want to push these to
`https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/`), based on the plan there.

One minor change from that plan is that I merged tutorials and guides,
because they ended up basically being duplicates which I thought would
be annoying for us to keep in sync. Additionally in the Diátaxis
framework, tutorials and guides are separated by whether they are
focused on acquisition of skills (e.g. in a learning environment) or
application of skills (e.g. in a work environment). I expect the
registry to be something that will be used occasionally in a work
environment, rather than a fundamental 'learnable' skill so I think it's
reasonable not to have tutorials and fold these into guides.

## How Has This Been Tested?
- Read through all these updated docs
- Unit and integration tests (that previously used examples.md and use
the schema) working
- Ran `npx markdown-link-check .` to check all the links work

## Breaking Changes
Links to old docs will break, but I don't think there are any. All
internal links have been checked and updated.

## 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)
- [ ] New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
- [ ] Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing
functionality to change)
- [x] Documentation update

2025-09-07 10:44:42 +01:00

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Namespacing and Security

Namespacing prevents name squatting, makes impersonation and typo squatting much harder, and provides attribution through domain-based identity.

For practical steps on how to authenticate for different namespaces, see the publishing guide.

Namespace Format

All server names follow reverse-DNS format. Examples:

io.github.alice/weather-server - GitHub user alice
com.acme/internal-tool - Company domain acme.com
org.nonprofit.research/data-analyzer - Subdomain research.nonprofit.org

Security Model

Ownership Verification

Publishing to a namespace requires proving you control the corresponding identity:

GitHub namespaces (io.github.*):

OAuth login to GitHub account/organization
OIDC tokens in GitHub Actions workflows

Domain namespaces (com.company.*):

DNS verification: TXT record at _mcp-registry.company.com
HTTP verification: File at https://company.com/.well-known/mcp-registry-auth

Namespace Scoping

Different authentication methods grant different namespace access:

GitHub OAuth/OIDC:

io.github.username/* (for personal accounts)
io.github.orgname/* (for organizations)

DNS verification:

com.domain/* and com.domain.*/* (domain + all subdomains)

HTTP verification:

com.domain/* only (exact domain, no subdomains)

Limitations

Domain ownership changes: If someone loses/sells a domain, they lose publishing rights. Similarly if someone gains a domain, they gain publishing rights. Package validation: Registry validates namespace ownership, but actual packages may still be malicious etc.

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