A checklist for reviewing MCP servers: interface, failure paths, and credentials

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The author describes how to review an MCP server by tracing the path from a tool's description to the code that reads data, changes state, or handles payments. Key checks include whether the advertised schema matches what the implementation enforces, whether descriptions avoid implying unsupported authority, and whether failures are returned as distinguishable error results. The article examines two public projects, textokit-mcp and dotnet-mcp-orders-server, based on source inspection rather than test execution. It notes that per-request timeouts do not establish a deadline for an entire payment flow and that a timeout cannot confirm whether a remote side effect occurred. Finally, the author recommends tracing credentials from configuration into signing and reviewing startup and error output for leaks.

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