I spent yesterday afternoon trying to list one MCP server on three catalogs: Glama, Smithery, and mcp.so. I assumed they would be variations of the same thing — git URL goes in, listing comes out.
They are completely different services with completely different ideas about what an MCP server is. If your server only speaks one transport, exactly one of them will Just Work and the other two will reject you in different ways.
This is what each one actually does at scan time.
Glama: clones the repo, runs stdio
Glama scrapes public GitHub for MCP-shaped repos automatically. My server showed up on glama.ai/mcp/servers/kfuras/notipo-app without me submitting anything. Claiming it then unlocks an admin where you control the build.
