Reverse-engineering Claude's MCP connector directory: log-scale popularity scores, no path to Verified

hyxxx13 · reddit · 2026-11-07

The team behind Tofu (an MCP connector listed as Community) pulled Claude's public connector directory feed and fitted its mechanics:
Popularity: round(1000 log2(N)), where N is distinct Claude accounts sending any MCP message in 30 days, including never-completed sign-ins (3585 = 12 accounts).
Rank: the feed's default order, also returned by its search endpoint. Among older listings, rank correlates strongly with accounts in a short recent window (Spearman -0.93); two-thirds of the top 100 are flagged isnew, so it's not newest-first. Search seems to index only name, one-liner and tool names — not descriptions.
Trending: top 10 by trendingscore (4 of 10 were Community tier). For listings with little prior use, the score fits round(1000 log2(a) (a - 1)) over a short undisclosed window; reaching global #10 needs ≥111 accounts, while developer-tools #10 (200,845) fits exactly at 39.
Verified (= feed's partner tier) has no application: 'highly useful' listings get auto-escalated to a slower human review that tests each tool. Usage is neither necessary nor sufficient — Front (62k accounts) is still Community while a 15-account competitor is Verified; selection criteria are unpublished.

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