Toolhive Registry
Discover, govern and control access to MCP servers and agent skills across your organization
What is Toolhive Registry?
Toolhive Registry is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to discover, govern and control access to mcp servers and agent skills across your organization
Discover, govern and control access to MCP servers and agent skills across your organization
This server falls under the Developer Tools category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- Discover, govern and control access to MCP servers and agent
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx toolhive-registryConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use Toolhive Registry
The ToolHive Registry Server is an enterprise-grade MCP server registry that enables organizations to discover, catalog, govern, and control access to MCP servers and agent skills across teams. Built in Go with a PostgreSQL backend, it provides a standards-compliant registry API supporting multiple source types (Git, file, Kubernetes, API, and managed) with configurable authentication and fine-grained access controls. Platform engineering teams and AI governance leads use it to build a curated, audited catalog of approved MCP tools so developers can find and use vetted AI capabilities without bypassing organizational security policies.
Prerequisites
- Go 1.22+ installed for building from source
- PostgreSQL 16+ for the registry database
- Task build automation tool (taskfile.dev) for running build commands
- Docker (optional, for the containerized deployment path)
Clone the repository
Clone the ToolHive Registry Server repository from GitHub.
git clone https://github.com/stacklok/toolhive-registry-server.git
cd toolhive-registry-serverBuild the binary
Use the Task build system to compile the registry server binary.
task buildSet up PostgreSQL
Start a PostgreSQL 16 instance and create a database for the registry. The Docker approach is the fastest way to get started.
# Quick start with Docker Compose:
task docker-up
# Or connect to an existing PostgreSQL instance and update config accordinglyCreate a configuration file
Create a YAML configuration file defining your registry sources, authentication mode, and database connection. The examples directory contains sample configs.
cat > config.yaml << 'EOF'
sources:
- name: local
file:
path: /data/registry.json
registries:
- name: my-registry
sources: [local]
auth:
mode: anonymous
database:
host: localhost
port: 5432
name: toolhive
user: postgres
password: postgres
EOFStart the registry server
Launch the registry API server with your configuration file. It will serve the registry API on port 8080 by default.
thv-registry-api serve --config config.yamlVerify the registry is running
Test that the server is running and returning registry entries via the API endpoint.
curl http://localhost:8080/registry/default/v0.1/serversToolhive Registry Examples
Client configuration
MCP client configuration to connect to a running ToolHive Registry Server instance over HTTP.
{
"mcpServers": {
"toolhive-registry": {
"url": "http://localhost:8080/mcp"
}
}
}Prompts to try
Example prompts for discovering and managing MCP servers through the registry.
- "List all available MCP servers in the organization registry"
- "Find MCP servers tagged with 'security' in the catalog"
- "Show me the skills available in the default registry"
- "What MCP tools are approved for use in the production environment?"
- "Search the registry for servers that provide database access capabilities"Troubleshooting Toolhive Registry
The server fails to start with database connection errors
Verify PostgreSQL is running and the database credentials in config.yaml are correct. The database must exist before starting the server — create it with 'createdb toolhive' or equivalent. Check that PostgreSQL version is 16 or higher.
The /registry/default/v0.1/servers endpoint returns an empty list
Confirm your source configuration points to a valid registry.json file or Git repository containing server definitions. Use the Admin API (v1) to verify sources are registered: GET http://localhost:8080/api/v1/sources.
task build fails with Go version errors
The project requires Go 1.22 or later. Run 'go version' to check your installed version. Install or update Go from golang.org/dl and ensure the new version is in your PATH before re-running task build.
Frequently Asked Questions about Toolhive Registry
What is Toolhive Registry?
Toolhive Registry is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that discover, govern and control access to mcp servers and agent skills across your organization It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install Toolhive Registry?
Follow the installation instructions on the Toolhive Registry GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with Toolhive Registry?
Toolhive Registry works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is Toolhive Registry free to use?
Yes, Toolhive Registry is open source and available under the Apache-2.0 license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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