Add proposal for operator registry integration via Gateway API

[JAORMX]

This proposal enables automatic MCP registry population based on Gateway API resources, making it easy for administrators to expose and discover MCP servers.

Summary

The operator will watch Gateway API HTTPRoute resources (annotated with toolhive.stacklok.dev/registry-export: "true") to discover which MCP servers are externally accessible. It constructs the full endpoint URL by traversing to the parent Gateway resource and creates registry entries in the upstream MCP Registry format.

Key Features

• Gateway API integration: Watches HTTPRoute resources for annotation-based discovery
• Explicit opt-in: Only HTTPRoutes with registry-export annotation are discovered
• Annotation fallback: Direct URL annotation for non-Gateway API users
• Rich metadata: Tier, tools, and tags via annotations
• Upstream format: Uses modelcontextprotocol/registry format with ToolHive extensions
• Event-based tracking: Kubernetes Events instead of status field bloat

Two Discovery Methods

1. Primary (Gateway API): Annotate HTTPRoute → operator discovers endpoint
2. Fallback (Direct URL): Annotate MCP resource → operator uses explicit URL

Annotations

Discovery control:

• toolhive.stacklok.dev/registry-export: Enable discovery
• toolhive.stacklok.dev/registry-url: Direct URL (fallback)
• toolhive.stacklok.dev/registry-name: Override entry name

Metadata:

• toolhive.stacklok.dev/registry-tier: "Official" | "Community" | "Partner"
• toolhive.stacklok.dev/registry-tools: Comma-separated tool names
• toolhive.stacklok.dev/registry-tags: Comma-separated tags
• toolhive.stacklok.dev/registry-description: Human-readable description

Design Decisions

• Separation of concerns: Ingress config stays separate from MCP resources (follows ToolHive design principles)
• Explicit control: Administrators choose what to expose via annotations
• Progressive rollout: Create HTTPRoute, test it, then add annotation when ready
• Standard format: Uses upstream MCP Registry format for compatibility

Implementation Phases

1. Phase 1: Direct URL annotation discovery
2. Phase 2: Gateway API HTTPRoute discovery
3. Phase 3: Production hardening (cross-namespace validation, cleanup)

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 55.30%. Comparing base (c94268a) to head (7bf59f7).
⚠️ Report is 11 commits behind head on main.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
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- Coverage   55.30%   55.30%   -0.01%     
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  Files         309      309              
  Lines       29129    29129              
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- Hits        16111    16109       -2     
- Misses      11585    11587       +2     
  Partials     1433     1433              

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