# Remote vs local MCP servers

Hosted endpoints and installable packages are different risk shapes.

## Local / installable
Runs on your machine or in your infra (npm, PyPI, git, containers). You care about package deprecation, repo health, and what the process can touch.

## Remote / hosted
The vendor runs the endpoint. You care whether it is alive, how it authenticates, and whether the docs repo is a red herring.

## Census handling
We probe remotes with real MCP initialize handshakes. Auth challenges can count as alive. A stale marketing repo with a live remote should not be judged only as “no push.”

## Practical tip
In lookup, use the **run as** chips to see hosted vs package shapes at a glance.