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MCP Ecosystem Update 2025: What's New and What's Next

· 7 min read
ToolBoost Team
ToolBoost Team
ToolBoost Engineering Team

Nine months into 2025, the MCP ecosystem has exploded. Let's look at what's changed, new capabilities, and where we're headed.

By the Numbers​

Ecosystem Growth​

MCP Servers:

  • January 2024: ~50 servers
  • January 2025: ~1,000 servers
  • September 2025: 8,500+ servers 🚀

ToolBoost Specific:

  • Total MCPs in catalog: 5,800+
  • New MCPs added (last 3 months): 1,200
  • Most deployed: GitHub (45k), PostgreSQL (32k), Filesystem (28k)

AI Clients Supporting MCP:

  • Claude Desktop ✅
  • Cursor ✅
  • Windsurf ✅
  • Zed ✅
  • Continue.dev ✅
  • VS Code (Claude Code) ✅
  • JetBrains IDEs (Beta) 🆕
  • Neovim (Community plugin) 🆕
  • Emacs (Community package) 🆕

Developer Adoption:

  • GitHub repos with MCP: 25,000+
  • NPM downloads (@modelcontextprotocol/*): 2.5M/month
  • Active developers: 150,000+

Major Updates​

MCP Protocol v1.1​

Released June 2025, adds:

1. Streaming Support

// Stream large responses
server.setRequestHandler(CallToolRequestSchema, async function* (request) {
  const data = await fetchLargeDataset();

  for (const chunk of data) {
    yield {
      type: 'text',
      text: JSON.stringify(chunk)
    };
  }
});

Benefits:

  • Better UX (progressive loading)
  • Handle large datasets
  • Cancel long-running operations

2. Binary Data Support

// Return images, PDFs, etc.
return {
  content: [{
    type: 'binary',
    mimeType: 'image/png',
    data: base64EncodedImage
  }]
};

3. Resource Subscriptions

// AI can subscribe to resource changes
server.setRequestHandler(SubscribeResourceSchema, async (request) => {
  const { uri } = request.params;

  // Watch file for changes
  watchFile(uri, async (content) => {
    // Notify client of update
    await server.sendNotification({
      method: 'resources/updated',
      params: { uri, content }
    });
  });
});

Use case: Real-time collaboration, live data updates

4. Tool Composition

// Tools can call other tools
server.setRequestHandler(CallToolRequestSchema, async (request) => {
  if (request.params.name === 'deploy_with_tests') {
    // Compose multiple tools
    await callTool('run_tests');
    await callTool('build_app');
    await callTool('deploy');
    await callTool('verify_deployment');
  }
});

New MCP Categories​

AI/ML MCPs:

  • OpenAI API MCP - Call GPT models from Claude
  • Anthropic API MCP - Call Claude from other AI
  • Hugging Face MCP - Access 100k+ models
  • Replicate MCP - Run ML models

Example:

"Generate an image using Stable Diffusion via Replicate MCP"
"Translate this text using Hugging Face translation model"

Browser Automation MCPs:

  • Playwright MCP - Full browser automation
  • Puppeteer MCP - Headless Chrome control
  • Selenium MCP - Cross-browser testing

Example:

"Go to competitor.com and screenshot their pricing page"
"Fill out this form on example.com with test data"
"Run our E2E tests and report failures"

Vector Database MCPs:

  • Pinecone MCP - Vector search
  • Weaviate MCP - Semantic search
  • Qdrant MCP - Neural search
  • Milvus MCP - Similarity search

Example:

"Find documents similar to this query"
"Store these embeddings in Pinecone"
"Search our knowledge base for relevant context"

Communication MCPs:

  • Slack MCP - Post messages, read channels
  • Discord MCP - Bot actions, server management
  • Microsoft Teams MCP - Team collaboration
  • Email MCP - Send/receive emails

Example:

"Post deployment notification to #engineering Slack channel"
"Email the sales team about this new lead"
"Schedule a Teams meeting for code review"

Design & Creative MCPs:

  • Figma MCP - Design file access
  • Canva MCP - Create designs
  • Adobe Creative Cloud MCP - Photoshop/Illustrator
  • Excalidraw MCP - Diagrams

Example:

"Update the login button color in Figma"
"Create a social media post with this text"
"Generate a system architecture diagram"

Platform Updates​

ToolBoost New Features​

1. MCP Marketplace

Community-contributed MCPs:

  • Verified publishers badge
  • User ratings & reviews
  • Usage statistics
  • Trending MCPs section

2. One-Click Private MCPs

Upload your custom MCP:

toolboost deploy ./my-custom-mcp \
  --private \
  --team engineering

Instantly available to your team!

3. MCP Analytics Dashboard

Track:

  • Request volume by MCP
  • Response times (p50, p95, p99)
  • Error rates
  • Cost breakdown
  • Usage patterns

4. Advanced Security

  • IP Allowlisting: Restrict access by IP
  • VPC Peering: Private network connections
  • Custom Domains: mcp.yourcompany.com
  • API Key Scopes: Fine-grained permissions

5. Collaboration Features

  • Shared Configurations: Team templates
  • Environment Sync: Sync env vars across projects
  • Team Spaces: Dedicated team workspaces
  • Usage Quotas: Set limits per team/user

AI Client Updates​

Claude Desktop 2.5

  • Improved MCP debugging tools
  • Visual MCP configuration UI
  • MCP performance profiling
  • Better error messages

Cursor 0.40

  • Native MCP marketplace
  • Multi-MCP workflows
  • MCP-aware code completion
  • Integrated testing tools

Windsurf 1.5

  • Real-time MCP collaboration
  • Shared MCP sessions
  • Team MCP library
  • Enhanced debugging

Community Highlights​

Open Source MCPs​

Most Popular Community MCPs:

  1. Linear MCP (12k stars)

    • Project management integration
    • Issue tracking
    • Sprint planning

  2. Notion MCP (10k stars)

    • Database queries
    • Page creation
    • Content management

  3. Jira MCP (8k stars)

    • Issue management
    • Sprint tracking
    • Workflow automation

  4. Airtable MCP (6k stars)

    • Base access
    • Record CRUD
    • View filtering

  5. Shopify MCP (5k stars)

    • Product management
    • Order processing
    • Inventory tracking

MCP Success Stories​

Startup: DevTools Co

  • Built entire development workflow on MCP
  • 10-person team, 50+ MCPs deployed
  • Reduced development time 40%
  • "MCP is our secret weapon"

Enterprise: FinTech Corp

  • Deployed MCP for 500+ developers
  • 200+ custom MCPs
  • $2M saved annually in productivity

Agency: Creative Studio

  • MCP-powered client workflows
  • Automated design handoffs
  • 60% faster project delivery
  • Unique competitive advantage

What's Coming Next​

Q4 2025 Roadmap​

MCP Protocol v1.2 (October)

  • Multi-modal support (voice, video)
  • WebSocket transport
  • GraphQL-style queries
  • Batch operations

ToolBoost Enterprise Plus (November)

  • Dedicated infrastructure
  • Custom SLAs (99.99%)
  • White-label option
  • On-premises deployment

New MCP Categories (Q4)

  • Finance & Payments
  • Healthcare & HIPAA
  • Legal & Compliance
  • Manufacturing & IoT

2026 Vision​

AI-First Development:

  • MCPs as primary development interface
  • Natural language → Working software
  • AI agents as team members

Universal Integration:

  • Every SaaS has official MCP
  • MCP becomes standard API pattern
  • "MCP-native" applications

Agent Economy:

  • Marketplace for AI agent workflows
  • Pre-built automation templates
  • Share & monetize workflows

How to Stay Updated​

Official Channels​

Documentation:

Community:

News:

Events:

  • MCP Summit 2025 (November, San Francisco)
  • Monthly community calls
  • Regional meetups (20+ cities)

Getting Involved​

Contribute to Ecosystem​

Build an MCP:

  1. Identify integration need
  2. Use MCP SDK
  3. Publish to npm
  4. Submit to ToolBoost catalog

Share Workflows:

  • Document your automation
  • Publish to community
  • Help others learn

Join Community:

  • Answer questions in Discord
  • Write tutorials
  • Speak at meetups

Resources for Builders​

Starter Kits:

Tutorials:

Tools:

Predictions for Rest of 2025​

By End of 2025:

  • 10,000+ MCP servers available
  • 500,000+ developers using MCP
  • 50+ AI clients supporting MCP
  • Major enterprises standardize on MCP

Technical Evolution​

Expected Innovations:

  • MCP proxy/gateway pattern
  • MCP orchestration platforms
  • MCP security scanning tools
  • MCP performance optimization

Business Impact​

ROI Reports:

  • 40-60% reduction in development time
  • 3-5x faster onboarding
  • 80%+ automation of routine tasks
  • Significant cost savings

Conclusion​

The MCP ecosystem has matured dramatically in 2025. What started as a promising protocol is now the standard for AI-tool integration.

Key Milestones:

  • ✅ 8,500+ MCP servers
  • ✅ Major AI clients adopted
  • ✅ Enterprise-ready features
  • ✅ Thriving community
  • ✅ Production deployments at scale

The future is bright:

  • Protocol continuing to evolve
  • Ecosystem growing daily
  • New use cases emerging
  • Mainstream adoption accelerating

Join the revolution:

Whether you're building MCPs, deploying workflows, or just getting started - there's never been a better time to embrace MCP.

Get started with MCP: ToolBoost Platform

Questions about the ecosystem? Email community@toolboost.dev

Want to contribute? Join MCP Discord