AI glossary
Model Context Protocol (MCP)
The Model Context Protocol is an open standard for connecting AI applications to tools and data, so one server can serve any assistant that speaks it.
An MCP server offers tools, resources and prompts over JSON-RPC messages. An MCP client inside an AI application connects, asks what the server offers, and lets the model call it.
Before MCP, every application wired every tool its own way. With it, you write a server for your ticket system once and any MCP-aware assistant can use it.
MCP moves tools across a boundary, so it moves risk too. A server should check every argument, ask who is calling and refuse what that caller may not do.
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