GLOSSARY
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
An open standard that lets AI models plug into external tools and data sources through one common interface — “USB-C for AI applications”.
Before MCP, every AI application needed custom code for every tool it touched. MCP (introduced by Anthropic, then adopted across the industry) defines a standard way for “servers” to expose tools, resources and prompts, and for any “client” — Claude Desktop, Cline, IDEs — to discover and call them. Write one MCP server for your database and every MCP-capable assistant can use it.
The protocol is why agentic tools in this directory grew capabilities so fast: thousands of community MCP servers now wrap everything from GitHub to Blender. Its power is also its risk surface — a malicious or over-scoped MCP server inherits the agent's permissions, so install them like you would browser extensions.