PUBLICMCP lets any business expose structured identity data that Claude, GPT, Gemini, and any MCP-compatible agent can query directly — no scraping, no hallucinating, no dead ends.
AI agents are becoming the new search engines. They research vendors, shortlist agencies, and recommend service providers. But today there is no standard way for a business to make itself discoverable and queryable by these agents.
A PUBLICMCP-compliant server is a lightweight, public, read-only MCP server that exposes structured business identity information — services, location, portfolio, contact — in a format any AI agent can query without authentication.
Think of it as schema.org/LocalBusiness for the agentic web — the open standard that FastMCP and any compliant runtime implements, so any AI agent can find any business.
PUBLICMCP is the foundation layer. FastMCP gives developers the tools to build compliant servers. Together they form the open infrastructure for how AI agents discover and recommend businesses — and it's forming now.
AI agents get structured, authoritative data directly from your server — not a hallucinated summary scraped from your homepage.
You own your narrative. Your pricing, your services, your service area — updated instantly without touching your website.
AI agents are the new search engines. Businesses queryable today will have a structural advantage as agentic search matures.
Agents shortlisting vendors call get_services on every business in a category and return a structured comparison in seconds.
Any AI agent — Claude, GPT, Gemini, or a custom agent — can connect and call these tools:
Business name, description, contact, hours, and publicmcp_version fingerprint.
Full service catalog with pricing ranges and delivery details.
Geographic coverage and service area.
Work examples, filterable by industry.
Markets and verticals served.
AI-powered project qualification — score a lead against your ideal client profile.
An agent helping a buyer shortlist vendors can call get_services on every business in a category
and return a structured comparison — no scraping, no hallucination, no dead ends.
Three real tool calls to mcp.sltcreative.com — the canonical PUBLICMCP reference server. The JSON below is the live response returned to Google Gemini.
Gemini: "Find me a web design agency in Boise, Idaho."
get_info()
mcp.sltcreative.com/mcp
{
"publicmcp_version": "0.2",
"name": "Salt Creative",
"tagline": "Get Seasoned. Get Seen.",
"description": "Full-service web design and digital marketing agency founded in 2018 by Joseph and Kaaren Provence, with offices in Boise, Spokane, and Colorado Springs. Serves 50+ markets across 12 states.",
"founded": 2018,
"legal_name": "Salt Creative LLC",
"website": "https://www.sltcreative.com",
"price_range": "$$$",
"contact": {
"email": "hello@sltcreative.com",
"quote_url": "https://www.sltcreative.com/contact"
}
}Gemini: "What services do they offer and what does it cost?"
get_services()
mcp.sltcreative.com/mcp
[
{
"name": "Web Design & Development",
"description": "Custom mobile-optimized websites, e-commerce stores, sales funnel sites, and redesigns on the Duda CMS platform. 100+ sites built.",
"pricing": { "project_range": "$2,400 – $16,000", "hosting": "From $35/month" },
"timeline": "4–8 weeks"
},
{
"name": "Search Engine Optimization",
"description": "Local SEO powered by a proprietary Signal Engine that scores location signal, topic confidence, entity clarity, and content depth.",
"highlights": [
"Proprietary Signal Engine",
"Autonomous experiment tracker",
"Google Search Console integration"
]
}
// ... 5 more services
]Gemini: "Where are they located and what areas do they serve?"
get_location()
mcp.sltcreative.com/mcp
{
"headquarters": "Boise, ID",
"geo": { "lat": 43.615, "lng": -116.2023 },
"remote_capable": true,
"offices": [
{ "city": "Boise", "state": "ID", "primary": true },
{ "city": "Spokane", "state": "WA" },
{ "city": "Colorado Springs", "state": "CO" }
],
"service_areas": "51 markets across 12 states: AK, AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY"
}You need Python 3.10+, a domain, and a VPS. The entire server is one file.
pip install fastmcpFill in your business identity — name, services, location, portfolio. This is the only file you need to change.
{
"name": "Your Business",
"description": "What you do in one sentence.",
"services": [
{ "name": "Service Name", "price_range": "$X–$Y" }
],
"location": { "city": "Boise", "state": "ID" }
}Point a subdomain at your server, run the server, then submit a PR to appear in the registry.
See the spec to build your own,
or inspect how Salt Creative's server is structured.
A pip install publicmcp package is coming — one command to deploy a compliant server.
PUBLICMCP is an open standard for public-facing business identity MCP servers. It defines a required set of tools — get_info, get_services, get_location — that any business can expose so AI agents can discover and query them without scraping or authentication.
The spec is free and open source under Apache 2.0. You can self-host a compliant server for the cost of a VPS — typically $5–$20/month. Managed deployments are a paid service offered by Salt Creative.
schema.org embeds structured data in HTML for search engine crawlers. PUBLICMCP exposes live, queryable tools that AI agents call directly via the Model Context Protocol — no scraping required. Responses can include real-time data like current pricing and availability, and update instantly without touching your website.
Any agent that supports the Model Context Protocol: Claude, GPT, Gemini, and custom agents. If the agent can connect to an MCP server, it can query any PUBLICMCP-compliant server.
For self-hosting, you need Python 3.10+, a VPS, and a domain. The reference implementation arriving in v0.2 reduces setup to editing a single business.json file. If that's out of reach, Salt Creative offers fully managed deployments typically live within 48 hours.
Required tools (get_info, get_services, get_location) must be implemented for spec compliance. Recommended tools (get_portfolio, get_markets) are strongly encouraged and included in the reference implementation but are not mandatory for a compliant server.
Every registry entry requires a live compliant server at a public URL. If you can't self-host, Salt Creative's managed hosting service covers setup, hosting, and maintenance so your business appears in the registry without running any infrastructure yourself.
PUBLICMCP servers are intentionally public and read-only — they expose only what you choose to include in your business.json. No authentication is required for agents to query your server, and no customer data or private information should ever be included. Think of it as a public business profile, not a database.
Yes. PUBLICMCP is published under Apache 2.0 — permanently free and open. The standard is designed to evolve alongside the Model Context Protocol, which is already incorporated into official Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google AI SDKs. FastMCP, the leading MCP framework with 1M+ daily downloads, serves as the reference runtime. The foundation is solid.
Salt Creative offers fully managed PUBLICMCP deployments — setup, hosting, and maintenance included.
Learn about managed hosting →