What is MCP?
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard for connecting AI models to tools and data. One MCP server — for a database, an API, a filesystem — becomes usable by any compliant client, ending the era of custom glue per model per tool.
The N×M problem it kills
Before MCP, every model-tool pairing needed bespoke integration. With it, tool builders expose one server and model clients speak one protocol — the integration matrix collapses to N+M.
Servers, clients, tools
An MCP server advertises tools, resources and prompts. A client (an agent runtime, an IDE, a chat app) discovers and invokes them over a standard transport. Schemas keep the contract explicit.
What it means for agents
Agents inherit an expanding universe of capabilities without their runtime shipping every integration. The protocol layer also gives operators one place to reason about permissions.
Common questions
Does AGNT support MCP?
Natively — MCP servers plug in as tool sources and their tools appear in agent toolkits alongside built-in nodes.
Who created MCP?
Anthropic open-sourced it in 2024; it has since become the de-facto cross-vendor standard.