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.
What it does not solve
MCP standardises how capabilities are described and invoked. It does not decide whether an agent should be allowed to invoke a given tool, does not stop a badly designed tool being badly designed, and does not make a model competent at using one. Those remain the runtime’s and the tool author’s problems. The protocol removes the integration tax, which is a large and worthwhile thing to remove, and nothing more than that.
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.
Do I need MCP to build agents?
No — built-in integrations cover most needs. MCP matters when you want a capability nobody has shipped as a native integration, or when you want to expose your own systems once and reuse them everywhere.