diff --git a/src/main.c b/src/main.c
index 7070a895b..5f982d0f1 100644
--- a/src/main.c
+++ b/src/main.c
@@ -888,10 +888,13 @@ static void print_help(void) {
     printf("  Manual/UI MCP boundaries: Qodo, Warp, JetBrains AI/ACP, Replit,\n");
     printf("  Plandex, SWE-agent, BLACKBOX, GitHub cloud agents, Jules,\n");
     printf("  CodeRabbit.\n");
-    printf("\nTools: index_repository, search_graph, query_graph, trace_path,\n");
-    printf("  get_code_snippet, get_graph_schema, get_architecture, search_code,\n");
-    printf("  list_projects, delete_project, index_status, detect_changes,\n");
-    printf("  manage_adr, ingest_traces\n");
+    /* Rendered from the MCP tool registry: a hand-maintained copy here
+     * omitted check_index_coverage (#1361) and could silently drift again. */
+    char *tools_help = cbm_mcp_tools_help_list();
+    if (tools_help) {
+        printf("\n%s", tools_help);
+        free(tools_help);
+    }
 }
 
 /* ── Main ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────── */
diff --git a/src/mcp/mcp.c b/src/mcp/mcp.c
index 78706924c..171f0dab2 100644
--- a/src/mcp/mcp.c
+++ b/src/mcp/mcp.c
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ enum {
     MCP_CONTENT_PREFIX = 15, /* strlen("Content-Length:") */
     MCP_RETURN_2 = 2,
     MCP_TOOLS_PAGE_SIZE = 8,
+    MCP_HELP_TOOLS_WRAP_COL = 74, /* --help tool list stays readable on 80-col terminals */
     MCP_MAX_CROSS_REPO_TARGETS = 4096,
 };
 #define MCP_MS_TO_US 1000LL
@@ -88,6 +89,7 @@ enum {
 #include <yyjson/yyjson.h>
 #include <ctype.h>
 #include <limits.h>
+#include <stdarg.h> // va_list, for the bounded help-list appender
 #include <stdint.h> // int64_t
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
@@ -890,6 +892,74 @@ const char *cbm_mcp_tool_input_schema(const char *tool_name) {
     return NULL;
 }
 
+int cbm_mcp_tool_count(void) {
+    return TOOL_COUNT;
+}
+
+const char *cbm_mcp_tool_name(int index) {
+    if (index < 0 || index >= TOOL_COUNT) {
+        return NULL;
+    }
+    return TOOLS[index].name;
+}
+
+/* Render the top-level --help "Tools:" block from the registry tools/list
+ * serves. The list used to be hand-maintained in the help text and drifted
+ * when check_index_coverage was added (#1361); deriving it here makes that
+ * divergence impossible. Heap-allocated; caller frees. */
+/* Append at out[len] and return the bytes ACTUALLY written.
+ *
+ * snprintf returns the length it WOULD have written, so accumulating that value
+ * lets len run past cap; the next `cap - len` then underflows to a huge size_t
+ * and the following write lands outside the buffer. CodeQL flagged exactly that
+ * shape here, and it is the same class #1173 just fixed in the Cypher list
+ * builder. The capacity computed below does happen to be sufficient today —
+ * which makes this the more dangerous version, not the safer one: the code is
+ * correct only by an argument made ten lines away, so renaming a tool or
+ * changing the wrap rule would turn it into an overflow with nothing to notice.
+ * Clamping makes `len <= cap - 1` a local invariant no later edit can void. */
+static size_t help_append(char *out, size_t cap, size_t len, const char *fmt, ...) {
+    if (len + 1 >= cap) {
+        return 0;
+    }
+    va_list args;
+    va_start(args, fmt);
+    int written = vsnprintf(out + len, cap - len, fmt, args);
+    va_end(args);
+    if (written <= 0) {
+        return 0;
+    }
+    size_t room = cap - len - 1;
+    return (size_t)written > room ? room : (size_t)written;
+}
+
+char *cbm_mcp_tools_help_list(void) {
+    size_t cap = SLEN("Tools:") + 2; /* trailing newline + NUL */
+    for (int i = 0; i < TOOL_COUNT; i++) {
+        cap += strlen(TOOLS[i].name) + SLEN(" ,\n "); /* per-tool worst case incl. a wrap */
+    }
+    char *out = malloc(cap);
+    if (!out) {
+        return NULL;
+    }
+    size_t len = help_append(out, cap, 0, "Tools:");
+    size_t col = len;
+    for (int i = 0; i < TOOL_COUNT; i++) {
+        const char *sep = (i + 1 < TOOL_COUNT) ? "," : "";
+        size_t item = SLEN(" ") + strlen(TOOLS[i].name) + strlen(sep);
+        if (i > 0 && col + item > MCP_HELP_TOOLS_WRAP_COL) {
+            len += help_append(out, cap, len, "\n ");
+            col = 1;
+        }
+        size_t wrote = help_append(out, cap, len, " %s%s", TOOLS[i].name, sep);
+        len += wrote;
+        col += wrote;
+    }
+    len += help_append(out, cap, len, "\n");
+    (void)len; /* final length is not needed; the buffer is NUL-terminated */
+    return out;
+}
+
 static int mcp_tools_cursor_offset(const char *params_json, bool *has_cursor_out) {
     if (has_cursor_out) {
         *has_cursor_out = false;
diff --git a/src/mcp/mcp.h b/src/mcp/mcp.h
index 58b01a32a..bc906770b 100644
--- a/src/mcp/mcp.h
+++ b/src/mcp/mcp.h
@@ -67,6 +67,15 @@ char *cbm_mcp_tools_list(void);
  * NULL if the tool is unknown. Backs the CLI flag parser + per-tool --help. */
 const char *cbm_mcp_tool_input_schema(const char *tool_name);
 
+/* Registry accessors: the number of tools tools/list advertises, and the name
+ * of tool `index` (static, do not free; NULL when out of range). */
+int cbm_mcp_tool_count(void);
+const char *cbm_mcp_tool_name(int index);
+
+/* Render the top-level --help "Tools:" block from the registry so the help
+ * text cannot drift from tools/list (#1361). Heap-allocated; caller frees. */
+char *cbm_mcp_tools_help_list(void);
+
 /* Format the initialize response. params_json is the raw initialize params
  * (used for protocol version negotiation). Returns heap-allocated JSON. */
 char *cbm_mcp_initialize_response(const char *params_json);
diff --git a/tests/test_mcp.c b/tests/test_mcp.c
index a56aebdf5..ff057b0fc 100644
--- a/tests/test_mcp.c
+++ b/tests/test_mcp.c
@@ -762,6 +762,40 @@ TEST(mcp_tools_list) {
     PASS();
 }
 
+/* #1361: --help omitted check_index_coverage because its tool list was a
+ * hand-maintained copy. The list is now rendered from the registry; this pins
+ * the render so a formatter bug cannot reintroduce a silent omission. */
+TEST(mcp_tools_help_list_matches_registry) {
+    char *help = cbm_mcp_tools_help_list();
+    ASSERT_NOT_NULL(help);
+    int count = cbm_mcp_tool_count();
+    ASSERT_GT(count, 0);
+    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
+        const char *name = cbm_mcp_tool_name(i);
+        ASSERT_NOT_NULL(name);
+        ASSERT_NOT_NULL(strstr(help, name));
+    }
+    /* Exactly one comma between consecutive tools: the rendered cardinality
+     * equals the registry's, so truncation or duplication fails here. */
+    int commas = 0;
+    for (const char *p = help; *p; p++) {
+        if (*p == ',') {
+            commas++;
+        }
+    }
+    ASSERT_EQ(commas, count - 1);
+    /* Wrapped for an 80-column terminal. */
+    const char *line = help;
+    while (line && *line) {
+        const char *nl = strchr(line, '\n');
+        size_t line_len = nl ? (size_t)(nl - line) : strlen(line);
+        ASSERT_LT((int)line_len, 80);
+        line = nl ? nl + 1 : NULL;
+    }
+    free(help);
+    PASS();
+}
+
 TEST(mcp_tools_list_latest_metadata) {
     char *json = cbm_mcp_tools_list();
     ASSERT_NOT_NULL(json);
@@ -9517,6 +9551,7 @@ SUITE(mcp) {
     /* MCP protocol helpers */
     RUN_TEST(mcp_initialize_response);
     RUN_TEST(mcp_tools_list);
+    RUN_TEST(mcp_tools_help_list_matches_registry);
     RUN_TEST(mcp_tools_list_latest_metadata);
     RUN_TEST(mcp_tools_have_behavior_annotations);
     RUN_TEST(mcp_index_repository_declares_name_override_issue571);