Smithery

Smithery is a registry of hosted MCP servers. Through the Marketplace, Ptah lets you search Smithery, vet servers, fill in any required configuration, and wire a connection into your workspace — usually in a click or two.

Connecting Smithery

The first time you open the Smithery provider, Ptah asks for a Smithery API key. Until a key is saved, no browsing happens.

1. Open Marketplace → Smithery.
2. Paste your Smithery API key into the Connect Smithery prompt and click Connect.
3. Ptah verifies the key and loads the popular-servers list.

Note

Your key is stored encrypted by Ptah and never leaves your machine. You can get a key from your Smithery account at smithery.ai.

Browsing servers

Once connected you’ll see Popular Servers, and a search box for finding specific ones. Each result card shows the server name, a short description, and trust badges:

Badge	Meaning
Verified	The server is verified by Smithery
Scan passed	It passed Smithery’s automated security scan
Ready	You’ve already resolved a connection to it in this workspace

Installing a server

Click Install on a server to expand its setup panel:

• One-click setup — if the server needs no configuration, the panel says “No configuration required” and you can set it up directly.
• Guided configuration — if the server requires settings (API keys, endpoints, options), Ptah renders a form generated from the server’s configuration schema. Fill in the fields; the Set up server button stays disabled until the form is valid.

Click Set up server. Ptah resolves the connection and marks the server Ready — “Connection resolved — ready to use in a session.” Its tools are now available to agents the same way ptah_* tools are.

Permissions

Smithery server tools follow the same permission model as every other MCP tool — tool IDs are mcp__<server-name>__<tool-name>, and you can allow, ask, or deny each one.

Caution

Hosted servers run actions on your behalf. Prefer Verified / Scan passed servers, and review what a server can do before granting broad permissions — especially anything that writes data or calls a paid API.

Smithery vs. manual MCP config

Smithery is the discover-and-click path. If you already know the server you want — or it’s an internal/stdio server — you can also declare it by hand in ~/.ptah/settings.json. See Third-party MCP servers.

Next steps

• MCP Registry — the official MCP server registry
• Third-party MCP servers — manual configuration & transports
• Marketplace overview