Field Guide 24: 36 checks across need, provenance, transport, auth and secrets, the tool surface, least privilege and failure behaviour, each gated as blocker, major, minor or need. The kit has the checklist as JSON, a scorer that turns a filled record into APPROVE, DEFER or REJECT, and a zero-dependency scanner for a saved tools/list that flags unannotated destructive tools, instruction-like or hidden text, broad capabilities and schema gaps. It ships real captures of the filesystem, git and Playwright MCP servers and a poisoned lookalike (8 errors).
When someone asks to add an MCP server to the team's config, before an upgrade of one you already run, or when you are building your own server and want a spec for its tool surface.