# The npm Install That Replaced a Marketing Team

> Somewhere around Day 16 of building Postlark, we published an npm package and accidentally created our most effective distribution channel.

- URL: https://engineering.postlark.ai/13-open-ecosystem
- Blog: Postlark Engineering Blog
- Date: 2026-04-07
- Updated: 2026-04-07
- Tags: building-postlark, mcp, open-ecosystem, npm, distribution, ai-agents

## Outline

- #Distribution Used to Mean Something Else
- #What an MCP Server Actually Is (for Distribution)
- #Sixteen Tools, Zero UI
- #The n8n Bet
- #Why Open Beats Proprietary Here
- #What We Learned
- #The Uncomfortable Part