AI Vocabulary · 05 Agents
What is Model Context Protocol (MCP)?
An open standard for connecting AI apps to tools and data sources, so integrations are built once and reused.
MCP is an open protocol, introduced by Anthropic in 2024 and now supported across many AI products, that standardises how AI apps connect to outside tools and data: your calendar, your CRM, a database, a file store.
Before MCP, every AI app needed its own custom integration for every service. With MCP, a service offers one "MCP server", and any compatible AI app can use it. Think of it as a common plug.
Each connected server adds tools to your agent, and with them more reach and more responsibility. Only connect servers you trust.
Why it matters for you
If your business tools offer MCP connections, your AI assistant can work directly with your real data instead of copy-pasted snippets. That is where much of the practical value of agents comes from.
Own it
Open standards reduce vendor lock-in. An integration built on MCP can move with you to another AI app instead of being tied to one vendor.
Where it comes from
Anthropic introduced the Model Context Protocol as an open standard in November 2024. It spread quickly to other AI products, and on 9 December 2025 Anthropic donated it to the new Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation, co-founded with Block and OpenAI (Anthropic). By then there were more than 10,000 public MCP servers.
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