Install it the way you would
From the published package or the pinned source, in a real Claude Code setup, not a mock. If it takes a database, a key, or a browser, it gets one. A tool that only "works" in a screenshot is not vetted.
Methodology
How a tool clears the gate
Every listing is health-checked automatically and, when it is vetted, run and audited by a person. No rankings are for sale, and no verdict is softened because the author is watching. Here is exactly what that means. 12 tools have been through it so far.
Run it, and read what it injects
Every listing is booted and exercised. Then the source gets read for the things a README never tells you: how many tokens it adds per session, what files and scopes it reaches, and whether anything leaves your machine.
Find the one thing that would bite you
The audit hunts for the specific catch: a write path that ignores read-only, a default that is not the safe one, a query that phones home. If there is a catch, it goes at the top of the verdict, not the footnotes.
Publish the verdict with the date
A signed, dated take you can disagree with. Passing tools get their caveats named anyway; failing tools stay listed with the reason. Nothing is hidden, and nothing is softened because the author is watching.
What each verdict means
- Vetted
- Installed, run, and audited by a human on a named date. The take says what it does well and where it will bite you. A pass is not an endorsement. It is a report you can act on.
- Flagged
- Failing health checks or carrying a disclosed concern, and kept visible on purpose, with the reason and, where relevant, a deadline for the author to fix it. A directory that deletes its failures is an ad.
- Unvetted
- In the intake queue. Listed with facts only (author, repo, summary, compatibility) and no verdict until a human runs it. We never claim harness support we have not tested.
- Refused
- Submitted and turned away, for exfiltrating data, hiding what it injects, or misrepresenting what it does. The refusal record is public, because the "no" is as useful as the "yes".
The standing promises
- Rankings are never for sale. Sponsorship and paid reviews exist, but they never touch the order tools appear in or the verdict they receive.
- A paid review buys scrutiny, not a pass. Authors can pay for a hands-on audit. They cannot pay for its conclusion. A paid review can end in Flagged.
- Failures stay published. Flagged and Refused listings remain visible, with reasons.
- We claim only what we ran. Compatibility marked untested means exactly that.