A month ago I shipped aicraft-code-review — an open-source MCP server that reviews code locally (OWASP scanning, N+1 detection, style rules) for Claude Code, Cursor and Cline. I had $0 marketing budget and no audience.
One month later: 650+ PyPI installs, 12 Product Hunt followers, and listings in 5 directories — with more pending. Zero dollars spent. Here’s the exact playbook, including what didn’t work.
The channels, ranked by effort-to-reach
Channel Cost Status What it took PyPI $0 ✅ 650+ installs One afternoon:pyproject.toml, wheel build, twine upload
Smithery
$0
✅ Live
Deploy via their CLI, quality score 52/100
mcpservers.org
$0
✅ Approved in ~1 day
Simple submit form
cursor.directory
$0
✅ Live
Submit plugin + MCP server + rule
Product Hunt
$0
✅ Launched
Free launch, real user feedback
Glama
$0
⏳ Reviewing
Submit + glama.json + Dockerfile
awesome-mcp-servers
$0
⏳ PR open
Needs Glama listing + badge first
Docker MCP Registry
$0
⏳ PR open
Root Dockerfile, LICENSE, SECURITY.md
Official MCP Registry
$0
⏳ Next
mcp-publisher publish from the PyPI package
MCPFind / Cline marketplace
$0
⏳ PRs open
YAML metadata, waiting on maintainers
Hacker News
$0
✅ 1 point
Honest “Show HN” style post
Reddit r/mcp
$0
❌ Failed
See below
What actually moved the needle
1. Directory listings compound. Every listing adds an install path, a backlink, and social proof for the next directory. mcpservers.org approved me in a day; that listing made the cursor.directory submission stronger.
2. Product Hunt gave us the roadmap. We only got 3 upvotes — but two comments became our next release:
-
“Team-shared rule profiles so my whole squad syncs rules” → shipped
MCP_CODE_REVIEW_CONFIG -
“Custom rule sets per repo” → shipped
.mcp-code-review.yamlauto-discovery
Real users telling you what to build beats any amount of guessing.
3. The awesome-mcp-servers repo is the prize. It has 92k stars and its README is how most people discover MCP servers. But the bar is real: your server must be listed on Glama with a quality score badge. Budget 2 weeks for review.
What didn’t work (so you don’t waste a week)
Reddit with a new account = spam filter. Both my r/mcp posts got silently removed. New accounts can’t message mods either. Lesson: build karma in technical subreddits before you have something to promote.
HN is a lottery. One point, zero comments. Fine — the post is still a permanent backlink.
Paid directories come early. mcp.so wants $39. OpenTools is paid-only. Skip them at the start.
The bug that almost sank fresh installs
Two weeks after 0.1.0 shipped, mcp 2.0.0 dropped with a breaking API change — and fresh installs of my server crashed at import. I had pinned mcp>=1.6 without an upper bound.
If you ship a Python MCP server today: pin mcp>=1.6,<2 in your dependencies right now. The 0.1.1 release with the fix went out the same week.
The honest numbers
- PyPI: 650+ installs, 150/month
- Product Hunt: 3 upvotes, 12 followers, 7 comments (all replied)
- GitHub: 2 stars (yes, two)
- Revenue: $0 so far — distribution first, monetization is the next chapter
The playbook in 5 steps
- Ship on PyPI/npm first. Every other channel references your package.
-
Prepare the common requirements once:
Dockerfile,LICENSE,SECURITY.md,glama.json, install docs. Every directory asks for a subset of these. - Submit to free directories in parallel. Fast approvals build momentum.
- Capture feedback (PH comments, issues) and ship it — then tell people you shipped it.
- Do the two big PRs last: awesome-mcp-servers and the Docker MCP Registry, once your listing quality score is in shape.
Next up: the official MCP Registry publish and the Glama badge. If you’re building an MCP server, steal this list — and tell me which channel I’m missing.
aicraft-code-review is MIT-licensed and installs with pip install aicraft-code-review.