How to choose an MCP server

Choose an MCP server by evaluating source provenance, exposed capabilities, transport, authentication, and read/write behavior — not by name recognition or popularity. Prefer a server whose source you can inspect, whose tools match your task, and whose permissions you can constrain to least privilege.

Review the maintainer and repository, the documentation quality, the transport(s) supported, the authentication required, whether tools can mutate state, and when the project was last updated. A read-only server is lower risk for AI-agent use than one that can write.

Prefer claims you can verify from the repository and docs over popularity signals. A widely-downloaded package is not necessarily well-maintained or safe. Where possible, confirm the tools a server exposes before granting it access.