Glossary

MCP server

Also called: Model Context Protocol, MCP

Definition

An MCP server is a program that exposes tools, data, or prompts to an AI agent over the Model Context Protocol, a shared standard for connecting agents to external systems.

In practice

Before a shared protocol, every agent framework defined tools its own way, so an integration written for one runtime was worthless to another. MCP makes the connection reusable: write a server once and any MCP-capable agent can call it. In practice an MCP server is how an agent reaches a database, an internal API, or a third-party service without that integration being baked into the runtime. The security consequence is worth stating plainly, because it is easy to miss: connecting an MCP server grants the agent whatever that server can do, so scope its credentials to the job rather than to convenience.

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Nearby terms

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