---
title: "Welcome"
description: "Documentation for MCP Description (mcpdesc) — a portable format for describing MCP servers — and the open-source tools that use it."
source: "https://mcpdesc.org/docs/"
---

**MCP Description** (`mcpdesc`) is a portable, machine-readable format that declares everything an MCP server offers — its tools, resources, prompts, transports, security, and metadata — in a single static document, much like OpenAPI does for REST APIs.

New to mcpdesc? Start with [Getting started](/docs/getting-started) or the [format overview](/format).

## Tools that use the mcpdesc format

The [tools catalog](/tools) lists open-source tools that read or write `mcpdesc` documents. Each tool’s reference documentation lives in its own repository.

The first tool suite built around the format is [MCP Toolkit](https://github.com/orgs/cisco-open/repositories?q=mcptoolkit) — an open-source project initiated by Cisco DevNet, maintained at cisco-open.

## The format

**MCP Description** (`mcpdesc`) is a portable, machine-readable format that declares everything an MCP server offers (tools, resources, prompts, transports, security), much like OpenAPI does for REST APIs. Read the full [**MCP Description specification** (v0.7.0)](/docs/specification/0.7.0/) on this site. Explore [all tools](/tools) that build on the format.