MCP (Model Context Protocol)
The Model Context Protocol is an open standard that defines how AI applications connect to external tools and data sources through a server interface, so one integration works across any MCP-compatible client.
Before MCP, each assistant needed its own bespoke integration with each internal system. An MCP server exposes tools and resources once, against a defined protocol, and any compatible client can use it. The engineering questions that matter are authorisation scoping, tool granularity and audit logging — not the transport.
Related terms
- MCP server
An MCP server is a program that exposes a specific system — a database, an API, a document store — to AI clients as a set of typed tools and resources defined by the Model Context Protocol.
- Tool use
Tool use is a language model’s ability to call defined external functions — querying a database, sending a request, performing a calculation — by emitting a structured call that an application executes and returns results for.
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