Handshake methodology

How Influzer verifies an MCP server

A handshake is a timed HTTPS request that speaks MCP initialize and, when that succeeds, tools/list. The verification grade adds that result to other stored facts. It is not a safety score.

What is tested

• The URL is an HTTP or HTTPS address. Anything else is skipped and not probed.
• initialize is sent as JSON-RPC with protocol version 2024-11-05 and client name influzer-mcp-validator.
• A notifications/initialized message is sent after initialize returns a result.
• tools/list is sent on the same session. Tool names and descriptions from that reply are what “live” tools means.
• The round trip is timed. The default timeout is MCP_LIVE_TIMEOUT_MS, or 20 seconds when that is unset.

How often

• The catalog file is refreshed by the weekly registry workflow.
• The validation workflow re-checks live endpoints daily and writes data/mcp-validation-state.json.
• A public probe at /api/v1/probe and the badge at /api/v1/probe/badge can run the same client on demand.
• Each stored probe can append a sample (time, status, latency) to data/mcp-probe-history.json. 30-day uptime is hidden until a server has samples on two different UTC days.

Probe statuses

• skipped — No HTTP endpoint, so the client did not connect.
• unreachable — The initialize request failed on the network.
• auth_required — The server answered and asked for authentication before tools/list could finish.
• error — The server answered, but initialize or tools/list failed.
• ok — tools/list returned at least one tool.
• ok_empty — tools/list returned an empty list. The directory status map does not currently treat ok_empty as Live OK, so the listing can still say Not probed.

Directory statuses

• Live OK (live_ok) — The stored probe endpoint_status is ok. ok_empty is not mapped to this label.
• Auth required (auth_required) — The stored probe endpoint_status is auth_required.
• Unreachable (unreachable) — The stored probe endpoint_status is unreachable, error, or failed.
• Not probed (not_probed) — No mapped probe result. This includes listings we have not probed and ok_empty results.
• Local only (local_unprobed) — Transport is stdio or local and there is no HTTPS endpoint to probe.

Auth labels

• Auth gate (required) — Shown when the live status is Auth required.
• No auth gate seen (none_detected) — Shown when the live status is Live OK. We did not see an auth challenge on that probe. It does not prove the server will stay open.
• Auth unknown (unknown) — Shown for every other live status.

Tool source labels

• tools/list (live) (live) — The stored validation method includes live_mcp and the catalog has at least one tool.
• Registry fallback (registry) — The stored validation method mentions smithery or registry and the catalog has at least one tool.
• Catalog tools (catalog) — The catalog has tools, and the validation method is neither live nor registry.
• No tools indexed (none) — The catalog tools array is empty.

Listing surface labels

• Ready surface (ready) — At least two indexed tools, a known transport (http, sse, or stdio), and either a live or auth response or a manual/official listing.
• Tools indexed (indexed) — At least one indexed tool and a known transport, without the ready rule.
• Thin listing (thin) — One indexed tool, or no tools but an HTTP endpoint, docs URL, or GitHub URL.
• Unverified (unverified) — None of the rules above.

Verification grade

• The verification grade is 0–100. It is not a safety score.
• Live OK adds 40. Auth required adds 25. Other live statuses add nothing.
• At least one indexed tool adds 20. Five or more indexed tools add another 10.
• An HTTPS endpoint adds 15. If there is no HTTPS endpoint and the transport is stdio or local, that adds 10 instead.
• A stored probe timestamp within the last 7 days adds 15.
• The score is capped at 100. A is 80–100, B is 60–79, C is 40–59, D is 0–39.
• Latency is measured and stored when a probe runs. It is not part of the grade.
• 30-day uptime is the share of stored samples in that window whose status shows the server responded (live_ok, auth_required, ok, or ok_empty). It is omitted until samples exist on two different UTC days.

What this does not prove

• That the server is safe to install or that its tools do what they claim.
• That a tool call succeeds. We do not call the tools.
• That resources/list, prompts/list, or sampling work.
• That authentication will keep working, or that an open initialize stays open.
• That a stdio server runs on your machine. Those are marked local and are not probed over the network.