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Model Context Protocol (MCP)

MCP is an open standard, introduced by anthropic in November 2024, for connecting AI applications to external systems — data sources, tools, and workflows. The canonical metaphor: "a USB-C port for AI applications" — one standardized way to plug any model into any data source or tool.

Why it matters

Before MCP, every AI-app ↔ tool integration was bespoke (N×M problem). MCP collapses that into a common protocol: build one MCP server for a data source, and any MCP-speaking client (claude-code, Claude, ChatGPT, IDEs…) can use it. This is foundational plumbing for the agent era and for owned infrastructure — you can run your own MCP servers exposing your own databases/tools to your own agents.

Key facts

  • Architecture: MCP hosts (the AI app) run clients that connect to servers (which expose tools/data/prompts).
  • Open-sourced; SDKs in TypeScript, Python, Java, Kotlin, C#, Go, PHP, Ruby, Rust, Swift.
  • Broad adoption across major AI vendors and tools through 2025–2026.
  • Transports: stdio (local process), http, sse (remote).
  • Lets an agent access e.g. Google Calendar, Notion, a Postgres DB, or a Figma file through a uniform interface.