Add MCP Registry support for centralized enterprise management of MCP servers

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Currently, Claude Code allows individual MCP servers to be added directly, but lacks functionality to use an MCP registry for centralized management. This creates several challenges for enterprise environments:

• No centralized control over which MCP servers developers can use
• Difficulty in maintaining security standards across teams
• Manual configuration required for each developer
• No way to enforce approved MCP server lists organization-wide
• Lack of visibility into which MCP servers are being used across the organization

Proposed Solution

Implement MCP Registry support that allows organizations the following:

1. Registry Configuration: Add support for a server.json registry file that contains a curated list of approved MCP server references
2. Active/Disabled Flags: Each MCP server in the registry can have an active/disabled status for easy management
3. Managed Settings Enforcement: Add a new setting in managed-settings.json that enforces developers to only use MCP servers from the approved registry
4. Registry Mode: When registry mode is enabled, developers cannot add arbitrary MCP servers - only those from the approved registry

Technical Implementation

• Add mcp_registry_url or mcp_registry_path setting in managed-settings.json
• Add enforce_mcp_registry boolean flag to restrict server additions
• Support both local file and remote URL registry sources
• Implement registry parsing and validation
• Update UI to show only registry-approved servers when enforcement is enabled

Alternative Solutions

Currently, organizations can:

• Manually configure each developer's MCP settings
• Use configuration management tools to deploy standardized settings
• Rely on policy and documentation to guide MCP server usage

Priority

Critical - Blocking my work

Feature Category

MCP server integration

Use Case Example

Real-World Example Scenario: Enterprise Software Development Team

Company: TechCorp with 200+ developers across multiple teams
Challenge: Need to ensure all developers use only approved, security-vetted MCP servers

Step-by-Step Implementation:

1. Platform Team Creates Registry

``json
// registry/server.json hosted on internal server
{
"servers": [
{
"id": "company-database-tools",
"name": "TechCorp Database Tools",
"description": "Internal database management and query tools for enterprise databases",
"manifest_url": "https://internal.techcorp.com/mcp-servers/database-tools/manifest.json",
"categories": ["database", "internal-tools", "enterprise"],
"version": "2.1.0",
"release_date": "2025-08-15T00:00:00Z",
"latest": true,
"active": true
},
{
"id": "approved-github-tools",
"name": "GitHub Integration Tools",
"description": "Approved GitHub MCP server for repository management and CI/CD integration",
"manifest_url": "https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/raw/main/src/github/manifest.json",
"categories": ["version-control", "github", "ci-cd"],
"version": "1.0.2",
"release_date": "2025-09-01T00:00:00Z",
"latest": true,
"active": true
},
{
"id": "servicenow-connector",
"name": "ServiceNow MCP Server",
"description": "Tools for ServiceNow incident and change management integration",
"manifest_url": "https://internal.techcorp.com/mcp-servers/servicenow/manifest.json",
"categories": ["itsm", "servicenow", "enterprise"],
"version": "1.5.1",
"release_date": "2025-09-10T00:00:00Z",
"latest": true,
"active": true
},
{
"id": "legacy-tools",
"name": "Legacy System Tools",
"description": "Legacy mainframe integration tools (deprecated)",
"manifest_url": "https://internal.techcorp.com/mcp-servers/legacy/manifest.json",
"categories": ["legacy", "mainframe", "deprecated"],
"version": "0.9.5",
"release_date": "2025-06-01T00:00:00Z",
"latest": false,
"active": false
}
],
"total_count": 4,
"updated_at": "2025-09-21T12:00:00Z"
}
``

1. IT Admin Configures Managed Settings

``json
// managed-settings.json deployed via configuration management
{
"mcp_registry_url": "https://internal.techcorp.com/mcp-registry/server.json",
"enforce_mcp_registry": true,
"other_managed_settings": "..."
}
``

1. Developer Experience

• Developer opens Claude Code
• Goes to MCP settings to add a server
• Only sees the approved servers from the registry (company-database-tools, approved-github-tools)
• Cannot manually add arbitrary MCP servers due to enforcement
• Selects "company-database-tools" and it's automatically configured

1. Security Team Management

• Security discovers a vulnerability in a third-party MCP server
• Updates registry to set "active": false for the affected server
• All developers automatically lose access within minutes
• Can add new approved servers by updating the registry

1. Benefits Realized

• 200+ developers automatically get access to approved tools
• Zero configuration effort per developer
• Instant security response capability
• Full visibility into approved tooling
• Compliance with enterprise security policies

This feature would transform MCP server management from a per-developer manual process into a centrally managed, secure, and scalable system suitable for enterprise environments.

Additional Context

Similar features in other tools

Github Copilot with VS Code Insiders (Version 1.105.0-insider) has implemented similar centralized management capabilities for MCP access control. The @id:chat.mcp.access setting provides three options:

• registry: Only allow MCP servers from an approved registry
• none: Disable MCP server access entirely
• all: Allow unrestricted MCP server access