Free MCP Hosting Limits: Smithery vs Powerduck Hub
Quick answer Short answer: Both platforms offer a free tier, but the limits are shaped differently. A registry's free tier is metered per call and limited in namespaces;
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API engineering, from the spec out
Product updates, engineering notes, and guides for designing, debugging, testing, mocking, and serving MCP tools from one OpenAPI spec.
Browse the guidesMCP Server OAuth: Smithery vs Powerduck
Quick answer Short answer: A gateway's managed OAuth is the right tool for connecting agents to third-party services, because it centralizes client credentials and consent. A generated server
Read articleGenerate an MCP Server from OpenAPI vs Pulling One from a Registry
Quick answer Short answer: A registry supplies a server someone else authored; a generator compiles your contract into a server. For your own API, the generated server is correct by
Read articleSelf-Hosted MCP vs a Smithery Gateway
Quick answer Short answer: A gateway handles credentials, OAuth, and sessions for you and sits in the call path; a self-hosted server runs on your own infrastructure with no intermediary.
Read articlePowerduck vs Smithery: Where Should You Host Your MCP Server?
Quick answer Short answer: A registry is the right place to discover and connect to someone else's service; a generator is the right place to publish your own.
Read articleLocal-First API Mocking for Cursor Agents
Quick answer Short answer: Give the agent a local mock generated from the spec, not a live backend. It is deterministic, contract-shaped, and returns the edge cases on demand, with
Read articleCursor and Powerduck: Why They Are Better Together
Quick answer Short answer: The two tools sit at different layers and compose cleanly. Cursor writes the code and drives the agent; Powerduck defines the contract, generates the typed tools
Read articleMigrating from Manual Cursor API Prompts to Spec-Driven Tools
Quick answer Short answer: Stop paying an agent to re-derive the API from pasted notes. Put the OpenAPI file in the repo, generate the tools and mock from it, and
Read articleAPI Testing in Cursor vs a Contract-Verified Workflow
Quick answer Short answer: An editor can write a test, but it cannot prove the response conforms to the API. A contract-verified workflow checks each response against the schema and
Read articleWhy Cursor Hallucinates API Calls Without a Spec
Quick answer Short answer: An agent hallucinates an API call because it is predicting the next token, not reading your server. Without a contract, it fills in the endpoint, parameters,
Read articleCursor MCP Config vs an OpenAPI-Generated MCP Server
Quick answer Short answer: A hand-written MCP entry in Cursor's config is plumbing you maintain; a generated server is derived from the contract. Both expose tools to the
Read articleHow to Give Cursor Accurate API Tools with an MCP Server
Quick answer Short answer: Generate an MCP server from your OpenAPI spec, run it locally, and add it to Cursor's MCP configuration. The agent then calls typed tools
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