Model Context Protocol (MCP)
StandardMCP
An open standard for connecting AI applications to external systems — data, tools and services — through a common interface instead of a bespoke integration per model-system pair. Anthropic introduced it in November 2024 and donated it in December 2025 to the Agentic AI Foundation, under the Linux Foundation.
MCP defines how an AI client discovers and calls tools, reads resources and uses prompts served by an MCP server. The practical effect is plumbing: it turns N×M integrations into N+M. The Agentic AI Foundation was created as a directed fund of the Linux Foundation, co-founded by Anthropic, Block and OpenAI, with MCP, goose (Block) and AGENTS.md (OpenAI) as founding projects; the donation moves protocol governance to a neutral foundation. For AI Operations, MCP sits in the systems-integration layer: it is where you decide what an agent can reach, with which permissions and with what audit trail. A loosely scoped MCP server is a risk surface, not just a connector.
How it differs from
- REST API
- An API exposes one service. MCP is the layer that standardises how a model discovers, describes and calls those APIs, so the same connector serves different clients.
- Agent-to-agent (A2A)
- MCP connects an agent to tools and data. Agent-to-agent protocols connect agents to each other. Complementary layers, not alternatives.
Examples
- Exposing the CRM as an MCP server so several agents can read opportunities without bespoke integrations
- Giving a support agent read-only access to the ticketing system over MCP
- Reusing the same MCP server from different clients without rewriting the integration
FAQ
- Is MCP an Anthropic thing?
- It started at Anthropic in November 2024, but since December 2025 the project has been donated to the Agentic AI Foundation, a directed fund of the Linux Foundation co-founded by Anthropic, Block and OpenAI. Neutral governance, not vendor property.
- Does adopting MCP lock me to a model?
- No — that's the whole argument. The connector belongs to the system, not to the model. Swap model providers tomorrow and the MCP server keeps serving.