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Product standards for MCP Tool Shop. Templates, contracts, and adoption guides that define what "done" means before anything ships.
Why
"Done" used to mean the code works. That's not enough. A product is code + safety + error handling + docs + identity + shipping hygiene. Shipcheck defines the bar.
What's in here
| Standard | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Ship Gate | 27 hard-gate + 4 soft-gate pre-release checklist |
| Error Contract | 2-tier structured error standard with code registry |
| Security Baseline | Report email, response timeline, threat scope |
| Handbook | Operational field manual for complex tools |
| Scorecard | Pre/post remediation scoring |
| Adoption Guide | Apply shipcheck to any repo in <30 minutes |
Quick start
- Read ADOPTION.md
- Copy
templates/SHIP_GATE.mdinto your repo root - Check off applicable items, mark non-applicable with
SKIP: - Ship when all hard gates pass
How it works
Hard gates (A-D) block release:
- A. Security Baseline — SECURITY.md, threat model, no secrets, no telemetry, default safety posture
- B. Error Handling — structured error shape (code/message/hint/retryable), safe output, graceful degradation
- C. Operator Docs — README, CHANGELOG, LICENSE, tool documentation
- D. Shipping Hygiene — verify script, version alignment, dependency scanning, lockfile
Soft gate (E) doesn't block but defines "whole":
- E. Identity — logo, translations, landing page, repo metadata
The gate says what must be true, not how to implement it. Applicability tags ([all], [npm], [mcp], [cli], [desktop], [vsix], [container]) prevent checkbox shame on repos where items don't apply.
Error contract at a glance
Tier 1 — Shape (mandatory everywhere):
{
"code": "INPUT_TEXT_EMPTY",
"message": "Text must not be empty",
"hint": "Provide at least one character of text",
"retryable": false
}
Tier 2 — Base type + exit codes (CLI/MCP/desktop):
| Exit code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | OK |
| 1 | User error (bad input, missing config) |
| 2 | Runtime error (crash, backend failure) |
| 3 | Partial success (some items succeeded) |
Error codes use namespaced prefixes: IO_, CONFIG_, PERM_, DEP_, RUNTIME_, PARTIAL_, INPUT_, STATE_. Codes are stable once released.
Trust model
Data touched: reads package.json, pyproject.toml, and SHIP_GATE.md in the current working directory. Writes template files (SHIP_GATE.md, SECURITY.md, CHANGELOG.md, SCORECARD.md) to the current directory only.No network requests. All operations are local file reads and writes.No secrets handling. Does not read, store, or transmit credentials.No telemetry collected or sent.
Reference implementation
mcp-voice-soundboard was the first repo to pass Ship Gate — scoring 46/50 after remediation.
Scorecard
| Category | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A. Security | 6/8 | SECURITY.md, trust model, no secrets/telemetry. MCP items skipped (not an MCP server) |
| B. Error Handling | 3/7 | Structured error shape + exit codes + no raw stacks. MCP/desktop/vscode skipped |
| C. Operator Docs | 4/7 | README, CHANGELOG, LICENSE, --help. Logging/MCP/complex skipped |
| D. Shipping Hygiene | 6/9 | verify script, version=tag, npm audit in CI, engines.node, lockfile. Zero deps = no update mechanism |
| E. Identity | 4/4 | Logo, translations, landing page, metadata |
| Total | 23/31 | 14 items skipped with justification · shipcheck audit passes 100% |
License
MIT
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