[CNCF LFX Proposal] Apicurio Registry: MCP Tool Validation and Compatibility Checking

### CNCF Project

Apicurio Registry

### Term

2026 Term 3 (Sep-Nov)

### Program Name

MCP Tool Validation and Compatibility Checking

### Program Description

## Description
Apicurio Registry supports MCP_TOOL artifacts and exposes them via well-known endpoints. As organizations deploy more MCP servers with more tools, they need to know: does this tool definition conform to the MCP spec? And if I chain Tool A's output into Tool B's input, are their schemas compatible?

This project adds validation and compatibility checking for MCP tools — the same schema governance Apicurio already provides for Avro, Protobuf, and JSON Schema. The mentee will implement spec validation on create/update, build input/output compatibility checking between tools, add a "Compatible Tools" API endpoint, and create a compatibility view in the UI.

## Expected outcomes
- MCP spec validation on artifact create/update (required fields, valid JSON Schema for parameters)
- Input/output compatibility checking between tools using existing JSON Schema compatibility infrastructure
- "Compatible Tools" API endpoint: given a tool, return all tools with compatible input schemas
- UI view: select a tool and see which others can consume its output
- Unit and integration tests for validation and compatibility rules

### Technologies

Java, Quarkus, JSON Schema, React, TypeScript, REST

### Skills same as Technologies?

- [x] Yes, the required skills are the same as the technologies listed above.

### Required/Desirable Skills

_No response_

### Mentors

Vandana Yadav | @vandanayadav7 | vandana.yadav.vs@gmail.com | vandanayadav
Carles Arnal | @carlesarnal | carnalca@ibm.com | carnalca

### Upstream Issue URL

https://github.com/Apicurio/apicurio-registry/issues/8427

### Application Prerequisites

- [x] Resume
- [x] Cover Letter
- [ ] School Enrollment Verification
- [ ] Participation Permission from school or employer
- [ ] Coding Challenge
- [ ] Custom Prerequisite (fill in details below)

### Coding Challenge URL

_No response_

### Custom Prerequisite Name

_No response_

### Custom Prerequisite Description

_No response_

### Custom Prerequisite — File Upload

- [ ] Yes — completion of this task requires the mentee to submit a file.

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**LFX program:** [CNCF - Apicurio Registry: MCP Tool Validation and Compatibility Checking (2026 Term 3)](https://mentorship.lfx.linuxfoundation.org/project/764a7403-9878-463f-a12f-9b173c3fd0a7)

Start with upstream issue #8427 and review Apicurio Registry's existing JSON Schema compatibility infrastructure. The project covers MCP validation on create/update, a Compatible Tools API endpoint, a compatibility UI view, and unit and integration tests; done means all listed validation, compatibility, API, UI, and test outcomes are implemented.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.