MCP — Model Context Protocol

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard by Anthropic for connecting AI models to external tools, data sources, and services. Think of it as “USB-C for AI” — one protocol that lets any AI model connect to any tool.

Owner: Anthropic Website: modelcontextprotocol.io

How It Works

AI Agent (Client)  ←→  MCP Protocol  ←→  MCP Server (Tool)
     Claude Code          JSON-RPC          File system
     Cursor                                 Database
     AdaL CLI                               API
     Gemini CLI                             Browser

MCP servers expose tools (functions the agent can call), resources (data the agent can read), and prompts (templates for common tasks).

Agents That Support MCP

Agent	MCP Support
Claude Code	✅ Native
Cursor	✅
Gemini CLI	✅
AdaL CLI	✅
Cline	✅
Roo Code	✅
Windsurf	✅

Popular MCP Servers

• Filesystem — Read/write local files
• GitHub — Manage repos, issues, PRs
• PostgreSQL — Query databases
• Brave Search — Web search
• Puppeteer — Browser automation

MCP vs ACP

	MCP	ACP
Connects	Model ↔ Tools	Agent ↔ Editor
Purpose	Give models access to external capabilities	Let agents work in any IDE
Analogy	USB-C (one plug, many devices)	App Store (one agent, many editors)

They’re complementary — not competing.

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