MCP Glossary

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Definition: The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets AI applications connect to external tools and data through a single, uniform interface.

Introduced by Anthropic in late 2024, MCP does for AI-tool connections what USB-C did for devices: one protocol instead of a custom integration per app. An MCP host (like Claude or Cursor) speaks MCP to any number of MCP servers, each exposing tools the model can call. The point isn't novelty — it's that you stop re-writing the same integration for every client.

Authoritative source: modelcontextprotocol.io

FAQ

Who created MCP?

Anthropic introduced the Model Context Protocol as an open standard in November 2024; it's now adopted by many AI clients beyond Claude.

Is MCP open source?

Yes — the protocol spec and reference SDKs are open source, and anyone can build a server or a client that speaks it.