Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO
REMOTE · WWW.ASHLEYPAYNE.CO.UK
Ask a UK fractional CTO's practice directly: services, prices, articles, and whether he fits.
Available components
Last scanned (5 hours ago)
Scores higher than 58% of remote servers
Reachable. Last reached 17 Oct 2026.
Category Developer Tools
How this component scores in each security and reliability category. Every signal is checked automatically against the live server, and we only credit what we can confirm. How we score → Why this is hard to score →
Endpoint Security63
- The endpoint's TLS certificate is valid, in date, and uses a strong key. View diagnostics → Pass
- No authorisation is required to call this server. Every tool declares its destructiveHint and none is destructive, so open access doesn't expose one. See how to fix → View diagnostics → Partial
- HTTPS enforcement could not be verified: the plaintext port answered with HTTP 405, which proves neither a plaintext path nor enforcement. View diagnostics → Unverified
- HSTS check failed: the Strict-Transport-Security header is absent. See how to fix → View diagnostics → Fail
- DNSSEC check failed: this domain isn't protected by DNSSEC. See how to fix → View diagnostics → Fail
Transport & Reachability100
- Verified streamable-http transport via a live MCP handshake. View diagnostics → Pass
Schema Quality & AI Usability84
- 100% of prompts and resources have a non-trivial description (not blank, and not just the item's name).Pass
- AI-judged instruction clarity (good).Pass
- Tool/resource definitions use about 965 tokens (~80/item across 12 items; 12 tools + 0 resources), lean.Pass
- Usage-examples check failed: none of the tools include examples. See how to fix → Fail
Stability & Change Management13
- Stability observed for 4 of 30 days with no destabilising changes; credit accrues until the full window elapses.Partial
Tool Coverage100
- 100% of tools have a non-trivial description (not blank, and not just the tool's name).Pass
- 100% of tool parameters carry a description.Pass
Tool Safety100
- No prompt-injection markers were found in the server instructions, tool names or descriptions we captured.Pass
- We read all 12 captured tool definition(s), and no name or description among them implies an irreversible operation.Pass
- An AI judge read all 13 captured unit(s) of tool text and found none that tries to manipulate the model reading it.Pass
Capabilities60
- Spec-recency check failed: implements MCP spec 2025-06-18; the latest is 2026-07-28. See how to fix → Fail
Every change we have recorded for this component, newest first. Security-relevant changes are always shown. ▲ marks a change for the better, ▼ a change for the worse; unmarked changes are neutral.
- 17 Oct 26 +1
No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 10 to 13. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 3 days of observed history at the previous scan, 4 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.
- 15 Oct 26 +1
No change was recorded against any check on this day. Stability & Change Management went from 3 to 7. That category is still filling its 30-day observation window: 1 days of observed history at the previous scan, 2 at this one. The score rises as the window fills, whether or not the server changes.
- 14 Oct 26 0
- Stability: unverified → 0.03 ▲ functional
- 13 Oct 26 67
First indexed and scored.
Diagnostic detail from the automated scan of this channel: what the scanner observed at each step, so you can see exactly where a check passed or failed. It is informational only and never changes the trust score.
Captured 17 Oct 2026 · Probed https://www.ashleypayne.co.uk/mcp
TLS valid
Negotiated TLS 1.3 with TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 .
| Subject | Issuer | Valid from | Valid until | Key | Signature | Serial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN=www.ashleypayne.co.uk | CN=WE1,O=Google Trust Services,C=US | 17 Sept 2026 | 16 Dec 2026 | ECDSA 256 | ECDSA-SHA256 | b6e858ac44b83a740efdf75a4b0936ec |
| SANs: www.ashleypayne.co.uk | ||||||
| CN=WE1,O=Google Trust Services,C=US (CA) | CN=GTS Root R4,O=Google Trust Services LLC,C=US | 13 Dec 2023 | 20 Feb 2029 | ECDSA 256 | ECDSA-SHA384 | 7ff31977972c224a76155d13b6d685e3 |
| CN=GTS Root R4,O=Google Trust Services LLC,C=US (CA) | CN=GlobalSign Root CA,OU=Root CA,O=GlobalSign nv-sa,C=BE | 15 Nov 2023 | 28 Jan 2028 | ECDSA 384 | SHA256-RSA | 7fe530bf331343bedd821610493d8a1b |
Background: What to check on a remote MCP endpoint →
DNSSEC insecure
Validation of www.ashleypayne.co.uk. — Not signed
| Zone | DS | Keys | Algorithms | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| . | trust_anchor | 20326, 38696 | 8, 8 | Verified |
| uk. | present | 43876 | 8 | Verified |
| co.uk. | present | 11810 | 8 | Verified |
| ashleypayne.co.uk. | absent | Unsigned (proven) parent-signed NSEC/NSEC3 proves an unsigned delegation |
Authentication No authorisation required
The endpoint answered without asking for a token. Anyone who knows the URL can reach it.
| Result | No authorisation required |
|---|---|
| HTTP status | 200 |
| Header | Value |
|---|---|
| x-content-type-options | nosniff |
Background: How OAuth 2.1 works in the 2026 MCP spec →
Transports 2 probes
| Transport | URL | Outcome | Status | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| streamable-http | https://www.ashleypayne.co.uk/mcp | Verified | 200 | |
| http (plaintext) | http://www.ashleypayne.co.uk/mcp | Inconclusive | 405 |
The tools this component advertises to a client, with an estimated token cost for each. Expand a tool to see its parameters and schema. The per-tool counts are indicative and are not scored directly; the schema's total context footprint is one signal in Schema Quality & AI Usability. A tool's description is untrusted text the model reads on every call, which is what makes this list a security surface and not just an inventory: how tool poisoning works →
assess_fit Check whether he suits your project ~257
Compares a description of a project, business or problem against a fixed published rule and returns a verdict: good_fit, mixed, poor_fit or insufficient_information. Wording alone never produces poor_fit. Where the text touches one of the things Ashley turns down, the result lists questions in ask_these_then_call_again, and the three named fields take the person's own answers on a later call. poor_fit needs an explicit yes in one of those fields; good_fit needs an explicit no in all three. Having a development team is not the same as wanting Ashley to supply one.
| Name | Type | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| must_start_within_a_week | string | – | Does the work have to start within a week? Starting within two weeks is the normal target, so that alone is 'no'. |
| situation | string | yes | What the person is trying to build or solve, their stage, team and constraints. Free text. |
| wants_a_delivery_team | string | – | Does the person want Ashley to SUPPLY a team? Leading a team they already have is 'no'. |
| wants_spec_built_without_challenge | string | – | Do they want a finished spec built exactly as written, with no room to challenge it? A complete brief to quote from is 'no'. |
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
get_ai_capability How he approaches AI work ~55
Which AI techniques he has built in production (prompting, retrieval, fine-tuning, MCP servers, local inference) and when each one is the right choice. Use this for questions about AI, automation or data privacy.
Input schema present but exposes no named parameters.
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
get_case_study Read one case study in full ~69
Full detail for one engagement: the situation, what was built, the engineering decisions and why they were made, the stack, and where there is one, the commercial outcome in indexed figures.
| Name | Type | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| slug | string | yes | Case study slug from list_work, e.g. 'coding-education'. |
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
get_contact How to get in touch ~37
How to reach Ashley: email, the contact page, and a booking link when one is live. Use when the person wants to make contact.
Input schema present but exposes no named parameters.
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
get_evidence How the numbers are counted ~85
Where the numbers on the site come from, for when someone asks whether they can be trusted. Returns one statement of provenance: the figures are counts from live systems, self-reported with a stated method and not independently audited, and Ashley will run any of them in front of someone who asks. Per-figure detail (the collections, queries and returned values) is not published.
Input schema present but exposes no named parameters.
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
get_faqs Common questions ~62
The questions buyers ask, with his answers. Pass a query to get the relevant ones; omit it to list every question without the answers.
| Name | Type | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| query | string | – | Keywords, e.g. 'price', 'team', 'ill', 'equity'. |
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
get_insight Read one article in full ~53
The complete text of one article, by slug. Use after search_insights, and only when the summary is not enough to answer the question.
| Name | Type | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| slug | string | yes | The article slug, from search_insights. |
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
get_overview Who Ashley Payne is ~27
Positioning, background and what makes him different from other fractional CTOs. Start here.
Input schema present but exposes no named parameters.
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
get_privacy What happens to your data ~49
What this connector and the website do with data, and what they do not. Use this if the person asks about privacy, tracking, cookies, GDPR, or what Ashley can see of this conversation.
Input schema present but exposes no named parameters.
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
get_services Services, pricing, and what he builds on ~72
The three ways an engagement runs (Build, Partner, Consult), the fixed-price diagnostic most engagements start with, how the process works, and which client surfaces he builds: desktop applications, browser extensions, chat-platform integrations and web. Use this for any question about platforms, apps, pricing or how an engagement is structured.
Input schema present but exposes no named parameters.
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
list_work List case studies ~25
Summaries of the selected work, with the slug needed for get_case_study.
Input schema present but exposes no named parameters.
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
search_insights Search his writing ~65
Search his articles on technical leadership, fractional CTO work, AI and building SaaS. Returns titles, summaries and the matching passage. Call get_insight with a slug for the full text of one.
| Name | Type | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| query | string | – | Keywords to match against title, summary and body. |
No output schema declared.
No examples provided.
How do I install the Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO MCP server?
Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO is a hosted endpoint at https://www.ashleypayne.co.uk/mcp, so there is nothing to install locally. Ready-made configuration for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Codex and 5 more is on this page, copied from each client's own documentation.
remote · www.ashleypayne.co.uk
claude mcp add --transport http uk-co-ashleypayne-ashley-payne 'https://www.ashleypayne.co.uk/mcp'
What is the Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO MCP server?
Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO is an MCP server listed in the public MCP registry as uk.co.ashleypayne/ashley-payne. Ask a UK fractional CTO's practice directly: services, prices, articles, and whether he fits. This page covers its hosted endpoint (https://www.ashleypayne.co.uk/mcp).
Is the Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO MCP server safe to use?
Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO scores 69 out of 100 on VerifyMCP. That is a record of what we were able to check automatically, not an endorsement. The category breakdown on this page shows every signal behind the number, including the ones we could not confirm.
What tools does the Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO MCP server expose?
Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO exposes 12 tools: get_overview, assess_fit, get_services, list_work, get_case_study, and 7 more. Their descriptions and schemas cost roughly 856 tokens of context every time the server is loaded.
Does the Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO MCP server require authentication?
No. We connected to Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO without credentials and it answered, so anything it exposes is reachable by anyone who knows the address.
Is the Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO MCP server still maintained?
Ashley Payne, technical co-founder and fractional CTO is still listed as active in the MCP registry. We last reached this channel on 17 October 2026. Those dates come from our own scans of the registry and the channel itself, not from anything the publisher announced.