---
title: "MCP"
type: "glossary term"
url: "https://aifordevs.org/glossary#mcp"
markdown: "https://aifordevs.org/glossary/mcp.md"
publisher: "AI for Devs"
license: "https://aifordevs.org/reuse"
attribution: "Credit AI for Devs and link to https://aifordevs.org/glossary#mcp"
also_known_as: "Model Context Protocol"
---

# MCP (Model Context Protocol)

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open protocol, introduced by Anthropic in November 2024, that standardizes how AI applications connect to tools and data. A host application runs MCP clients that talk to MCP servers over JSON-RPC, using stdio for local servers or Streamable HTTP for remote ones.

Servers offer resources, prompts, and tools. The 2026-07-28 revision makes requests stateless and self-contained and negotiates capabilities per request, replacing the earlier initialize handshake. Anthropic donated MCP to the Agentic AI Foundation, a Linux Foundation fund, in December 2025.

## Example

To run a tool, a client sends a JSON-RPC tools/call request with the tool name and arguments, then passes the result back to the model.

## Source

[Model Context Protocol specification, revision 2026-07-28](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2026-07-28)

## Related terms

- [MCP server](https://aifordevs.org/glossary#mcp-server)
- [Tool calling](https://aifordevs.org/glossary#tool-calling)
- [A2A](https://aifordevs.org/glossary#a2a)
- [Agent](https://aifordevs.org/glossary#agent)

## Read the article

[What is an MCP server? Build and test one in TypeScript](https://aifordevs.org/articles/build-an-mcp-server)

## Cite this term

AI for Devs. "MCP." https://aifordevs.org/glossary#mcp

- Page: https://aifordevs.org/glossary#mcp
- Markdown: https://aifordevs.org/glossary/mcp.md
- Reuse: Quote or summarize with a link to this page. Terms: https://aifordevs.org/reuse
- Publisher: AI for Devs