MCP Glossary

MCP server

Definition: An MCP server is a program that exposes a set of tools (and optionally resources and prompts) to an AI client over the Model Context Protocol.

It's the 'thing you add to Claude/Cursor'. A server wraps some capability — a database, an API, your filesystem — and advertises callable tools the model can use. Most are small: the average server in this directory exposes around 12 tools. The honest truth is that a server is usually a thin wrapper over an existing API; the differentiation is auth, guardrails, and whether it's maintained.

FAQ

What's the difference between an MCP server and an API?

An API is the underlying service; an MCP server is a thin adapter that exposes that API to an AI model as callable tools in a standard shape. See our MCP vs API guide.