How to tell if an MCP server is official

What “official” should mean

The publisher controls the brand’s namespace under a proof the registry (or equivalent) accepts — DNS or GitHub org — and that namespace matches the product you think you’re installing.

What it is not

• A high star count
• Appearing first in a random directory
• A domain that merely contains the brand string (farms do this)

How the census badges it

Official is query-scoped. Search stripe vs a random third-party name and the badge set changes with the evidence rules. Details: methodology.

If nothing is Official

We may still list community servers. We may research off-registry hosts. Absence of Official is itself a finding — not a prompt to invent one.