fix(ci): deduplicate the mcp-publisher version pin into one composite action

.github/actions/install-mcp-publisher/action.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+name: Install mcp-publisher
+description: >-
+  Download and checksum-verify the mcp-publisher CLI (modelcontextprotocol/registry).
+  Single source of truth for the pinned version AND checksum, used by every
+  workflow that needs the binary — before this action existed, ci.yml and
+  Release.yaml pinned it independently and had already drifted apart
+  (v1.7.9 vs v1.8.1, two different checksums, one bump forgotten). Callers
+  do not pass `version`/`sha256`: the defaults below are the only place the
+  pin lives, so bumping mcp-publisher is one edit to this file, in every
+  workflow, in one PR.
+
+inputs:
+  version:
+    description: >-
+      mcp-publisher release tag. Defaulted, not passed by callers — see the
+      top of this file. Get the new version and sha256 together from
+      https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/releases and never
+      bump one without the other.
+    required: false
+    default: v1.8.1
+  sha256:
+    description: >-
+      sha256 of mcp-publisher_linux_amd64.tar.gz for `version`. Defaulted,
+      not passed by callers.
+    required: false
+    default: a06c9096dcb9727c13555b6be26c7effa707b01f06a4c561ba7a3635443cf2cc
+  destination:
+    description: 'Directory to place the mcp-publisher binary in'
+    required: false
+    default: '.'
+
+outputs:
+  path:
+    description: 'Path to the installed mcp-publisher binary'
+    value: ${{ steps.install.outputs.path }}
+
+runs:
+  using: composite
+  steps:
+    # mcp-publisher has no first-party GitHub Action wrapper, so it is
+    # fetched as a release binary and checksum-verified against the
+    # registry project's own published checksums — the same
+    # supply-chain discipline the pinned Actions elsewhere in this repo
+    # get via commit SHA, applied to a raw binary download.
+    - name: Download, verify, and install mcp-publisher
+      id: install
+      shell: bash
+      run: |
+        set -euxo pipefail
+        curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/releases/download/${{ inputs.version }}/mcp-publisher_linux_amd64.tar.gz"
+        echo "${{ inputs.sha256 }}  mcp-publisher_linux_amd64.tar.gz" | sha256sum -c -
+        mkdir -p "${{ inputs.destination }}"
+        tar xzf mcp-publisher_linux_amd64.tar.gz -C "${{ inputs.destination }}" mcp-publisher
+        chmod +x "${{ inputs.destination }}/mcp-publisher"
+        rm mcp-publisher_linux_amd64.tar.gz
+        echo "path=${{ inputs.destination }}/mcp-publisher" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"

.github/workflows/Release.yaml

@@ -233,22 +233,12 @@ jobs:
         with:
           python-version: "3.12"
 
-      # mcp-publisher has no first-party GitHub Action wrapper, so it is
-      # fetched as a release binary and checksum-verified against the
-      # registry project's own published checksums — the same supply-chain
-      # discipline the pinned Actions above get via commit SHA, applied to a
-      # raw binary download. Bump both MCP_PUBLISHER_VERSION and the SHA-256
-      # together from https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/releases.
+      # Version+checksum pin lives in the action's defaults, not here —
+      # .github/actions/install-mcp-publisher/action.yml. Before this action
+      # existed, this pin and ci.yml's lived in two places and had already
+      # drifted apart (v1.7.9 vs v1.8.1). A bump is one edit to that file.
       - name: Install mcp-publisher (checksum-verified)
-        env:
-          MCP_PUBLISHER_VERSION: v1.8.1
-          MCP_PUBLISHER_SHA256: a06c9096dcb9727c13555b6be26c7effa707b01f06a4c561ba7a3635443cf2cc
-        run: |
-          set -euxo pipefail
-          curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/releases/download/${MCP_PUBLISHER_VERSION}/mcp-publisher_linux_amd64.tar.gz"
-          echo "${MCP_PUBLISHER_SHA256}  mcp-publisher_linux_amd64.tar.gz" | sha256sum -c -
-          tar xzf mcp-publisher_linux_amd64.tar.gz mcp-publisher
-          chmod +x mcp-publisher
+        uses: ./.github/actions/install-mcp-publisher
 
       # The exact defect this job exists to prevent runs in both directions:
       # a registry entry must never point at a PyPI version that does not

.github/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -115,16 +115,19 @@ jobs:
         run: uv build
       - name: Verify distribution metadata and compatibility entry points
         run: uv run --no-sync python -m scripts.check_distribution_artifact
+      # Was pinned independently of Release.yaml's copy at v1.7.9 (Release.yaml
+      # had already moved to v1.8.1 with a different checksum — two pins of
+      # the same binary, already drifted apart). Now installed by the shared
+      # composite action, whose defaults are the only place the version+
+      # checksum pin lives — a future bump is one edit to that file, not two.
+      # v1.8.1 confirmed as the latest release via the registry's GitHub
+      # Releases API on 2026-08-10; both workflows are aligned to it.
+      - name: Install mcp-publisher (checksum-verified)
+        uses: ./.github/actions/install-mcp-publisher
+        with:
+          destination: /tmp
       - name: Validate official MCP Registry manifest
-        run: |
-          set -euxo pipefail
-          curl --fail --location --silent --show-error \
-            https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/registry/releases/download/v1.7.9/mcp-publisher_linux_amd64.tar.gz \
-            --output /tmp/mcp-publisher.tar.gz
-          echo "ab128162b0616090b47cf245afe0a23f3ef08936fdce19074f5ba0a4469281ac  /tmp/mcp-publisher.tar.gz" \
-            | sha256sum --check
-          tar -xzf /tmp/mcp-publisher.tar.gz -C /tmp mcp-publisher
-          /tmp/mcp-publisher validate
+        run: /tmp/mcp-publisher validate
 
   js-test:
     # Required job: the browser UI (ui/, ~25.5k lines) is the product's primary