A scan of 36 MCP servers found a third failed agent-usability checks
Normal_Sherbert_1520 · reddit · 2026-07-22
The author built mcpgrade after finding that MCP spec compliance does not guarantee real agent usability, then lint-scanned 36 popular MCP servers.
Main findings:
- About a third of the servers failed the usability check.
- The dominant issue was missing parameter descriptions; for example, Firecrawl and Todoist produced large numbers of errors.
- A carefully documented but archived server scored better than some actively maintained ones.
- On a 26-tool fuzzy catalog, the model hallucinated a matching tool for out-of-scope requests about 50% of the time.
The project ships a quick CLI (npx mcpgrade --stdio ...) that returns an A–F grade, plus a public leaderboard and methodology. The post argues that server design must be measured by whether agents can actually use the tools, not just whether the spec is technically valid.
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