Model Context Protocol (MCP)

LLMs face a unique challenge: how do you connect these chat interfaces to external, private systems? Obviously, companies like Anthropic and OpenAI can't possibly work with every other company to design custom-made solutions to interfacing applications. In light of this, Model Context Protocol was created to provide an extensible interface for applications to use. At the highest level of abstraction, MCP acts as a USB stick that plugs in the data from external applications into LLMs like Claude.

Under the hood, the implementation follows a client-server architecture where the MCP Host like Claude, maintains a connection with the MCP Client. The communication is handled in two layers:

1. Data Layer: Controls the JSON-RPC protocol used for communication
2. Transport Layer: Controls the communication mechanisms like auth, connection establishment, etc.

Then, when the connection is established MCP Primitives facilitate the action between the server and host.

Common MCP Servers include

• Filesystem Servers
• Database Servers
• API Servers
• Development Tools
• Business Systems