Smithery
Break down how Smithery works as the registry and distribution layer for MCP: how hosted mode holds credentials and sessions, how the CLI writes connections into client configs, and where pay-per-query sits against self-hosting.
Smithery is the registry and distribution layer for MCP servers, often described as npm for MCP. Developers search, connect and publish servers there; in the hosted model it holds API keys, credentials and sessions, so a client only needs an API key. A command-line tool searches the registry, writes a connection into clients such as Claude Desktop or Cursor, and browses the Skills registry. Pricing is per query, not a subscription.