Anthropic has completely reorganized the way MCP servers are deployed with the introduction of the .dxt file format. Instead of manually configuring the development environment, dealing with dependency conflicts, and editing JSON configuration files, a .dxt file can now be downloaded and double-clicked to complete the installation. This packaging solution combines the server implementation code, dependency libraries, and manifest.json configuration file into a single zip package, and the built-in Node.js runtime environment removes the dependency on external tools, making it easy for non-technical users to utilize advanced features that were originally intended for developers only.
This answer comes from the articleAnthropic's New Game: Can Desktop Extensions Break Down the Installation Barriers for Native AI?The
