Table of Contents
Inside the Ecosystem: Claude, Smithery, and Beyond.
Claude: The Flagship MCP Client
Smithery: The Registry That Powers Discovery.
The Server Landscape: Thousands of Tools, Infinite Use Cases.
Beyond Claude and Smithery: The Emerging Competition.
Inside the Ecosystem: Claude, Smithery, and Beyond
The Power of Ecosystems
Protocols don’t succeed in isolation—they thrive when ecosystems form around them. Just as HTTP needed browsers and servers, and USB needed devices and ports, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is gaining traction because of the vibrant, fast-growing ecosystem that surrounds it. Only a few months have passed since its announcement. And thousands of responses indicate it has great potential.
In this article, we’ll explore the three pillars of the MCP ecosystem: clients, registries, and servers. We’ll look at the tools that are already transforming how developers and AI systems interact—and what’s coming next.
Claude: The Flagship MCP Client
At the heart of the MCP client landscape is Claude Desktop, Anthropic ’s reference implementation and one of the most widely used MCP clients to date.
Claude uses MCP to:
- Discover tools dynamically from registries like Smithery.
- Invoke capabilities like browsing, coding, or querying databases.
- Maintain context across sessions, enabling multi-step reasoning and memory.
What makes Claude powerful isn’t just its model—it’s the way it orchestrates tools through MCP. Whether you’re summarizing a PDF, querying a SQL database, or automating a workflow, Claude acts as a conductor, seamlessly coordinating tools in real time. My experience with Claude is a tool that is designed to actually provide you with more interactions and results than you may have expected.
And Claude isn’t alone. Other clients are emerging, each with their own strengths and specializations—some focused on voice, others on mobile, and some embedded in IDEs or browsers.
Smithery: The Registry That Powers Discovery
If Claude is the conductor, Smithery is the library of instruments.
Smithery is a public registry and installer for MCP servers. It’s where developers go to:
- Browse thousands of available tools, from browser automation to image generation.
- Install and mount servers with a single command.
- Explore metadata, including tool descriptions, categories, and usage statistics.
Smithery makes it easy to experiment. Want to try a new PDF summarizer or a custom GPT wrapper? Just search, install, and mount. No API keys, no SDKs—just plug and play.
This ease of discovery is what makes MCP feel like a true protocol: tools become interchangeable, composable, and context-aware.
The Server Landscape: Thousands of Tools, Infinite Use Cases
The real magic of MCP lies in its servers (the symphonies) — the tools that expose capabilities to clients like Claude.
Today, there are thousands of MCP servers available, covering a wide range of domains:
- Developer Tools: Code formatters, linters, GitHub integrations.
- Data Access: SQL query runners, CSV explorers, API wrappers.
- Automation: Browser control, email sending, calendar scheduling.
- Creative Tools: Image generation, music composition, design assistants.
Each server is a self-contained unit that speaks MCP. That means any client can use it, and any developer can build one. The result is a modular, interoperable ecosystem where tools can be mixed and matched like building blocks.
Beyond Claude and Smithery: The Emerging Competition
While Claude and Smithery are leading the charge, they’re not the only players in town.
- Alternative clients are emerging, some open-source, others commercial.
- Self-hosted registries are gaining popularity for enterprise use.
- Custom clients are being embedded into IDEs, chat apps, and even voice assistants.
This diversity is a good thing. It ensures that MCP remains decentralized, adaptable, and resilient—qualities that are essential for any protocol aiming to become a standard.
Why This Matters
The strength of a protocol lies in its network effect. The more tools that adopt MCP, the more valuable it becomes for clients. The more clients that support MCP, the more incentive there is to build tools.
This feedback loop is already in motion. And it’s accelerating.
MCP isn’t just a spec — it’s a living, breathing ecosystem. And it’s growing every day.
Call to Action
If you’re curious about MCP, there’s no better way to learn than to dive in:
- Explore Smithery: Browse the registry and try a few tools.
- Use Claude Desktop: See how it orchestrates tools in real time.
- MCP Basics: Wrap a script, an API, or a workflow and share it with the world.
The ecosystem is open. The tools are ready. The future is composable. You might want to check out my video related to this subject.
Join the movement. Build with MCP.
In the next article, we’ll take a look into why so many MCP Servers in a short timeframe. It seems like infinite possibilities on the horizon.