Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Why It Was Important

Before MCP every model-to-tool integration was bespoke, so each combination of assistant and data source had to be built by hand. MCP defined one protocol for exposing tools, resources and prompts, turning an N-by-M integration problem into an N-plus-M one. It was adopted well beyond its author and became the common way agentic systems reach the software around them — infrastructure rather than capability, which is why it spread so quickly.

Who Invented It

Anthropic

Published as an open standard with open-source reference implementations.

Applications

• Agent Tool Use
• Developer Tooling
• Enterprise Data Access
• Assistant Integrations