MCP Overview

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that gives AI models a universal interface for connecting to external tools, data sources, and services, analogous to how USB-C gives hardware a universal connector. Instead of building custom integrations for every tool-and-model combination, developers write one MCP server that any conforming client, including Cursor, Claude Desktop, and future agents, can discover and use without modification. Understanding MCP is foundational to modern agentic architecture because it determines how agents discover their capabilities and interact with the external world.