draft-morrison-mcp-dns-discovery
Discovery of Model Context Protocol Servers via DNS TXT Records
This document defines a DNS-based mechanism for the discovery of
Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, the identity properties of the
organisations that operate them, and (new in this revision) the
cryptographic identity envelope bound to an individual Sovereign-
tier ~handle published under the same zone. Three TXT resource
records are defined. The _mcp.<domain> record (defined in v01)
advertises the presence, endpoint URL, transport protocol,
cryptographic identity, and capability profile of an MCP server
associated with a domain name. The _org-alter.<domain> record
(introduced in v02) advertises the canonical organisational identity
of the domain operator: legal entity name, registry identifier,
founding date, primary regions of operation, and any regulatory
frameworks under which the operator is bound to refuse external
automated access. The _alter.<domain> record (introduced in this
revision) publishes an Ed25519-signed identity envelope binding a
~handle to a public key, an IdentityLog Signed Tree Head root, and a
revocation commitment. Taken together, the three records provide
service discovery, organisational identity bootstrap, and individual
identity recognition from a single canonical source: the domain's own
DNS zone. This revision additionally requires DNSSEC [RFC4033]
validation of envelope responses and a DANE TLSA [RFC6698] pin
binding the MCP endpoint's leaf certificate to the published zone. A
companion URI scheme (alter:) is registered provisionally with IANA
per [RFC7595] for handle dispatch. The mechanism complements HTTPS-
based discovery (.well-known/mcp/server-card.json and .well-known/
alter-envelope.json) by providing a lightweight, resolver-cached
bootstrap that requires no HTTPS round-trip. The design follows the
precedent established by DKIM [RFC6376], SPF [RFC7208], DMARC
[RFC7489], MTA-STS [RFC8461], and the existing _mcp. / _org-alter.
labels of v01-v02.