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MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a standard interface that lets an AI application discover and request capabilities or data from external systems. It does not provide the data or do the model’s reasoning; it gives the application a common way to communicate with an MCP server that offers tools, resources, or prompts.
What is MCP?
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard for connecting AI applications to systems where data and tools live. The official TypeScript SDK documentation describes MCP in those terms. In practice, MCP defines how an application can learn what a server makes available and request a specific operation or piece of context.
A useful analogy is a standard connector: each service still owns its data and operations, while MCP supplies a shared way for an AI application to discover and request the capabilities that service chooses to offer. The analogy is not the protocol definition itself.
How do an MCP host, client, and server fit together?
- Host: The AI application that contains the model experience.
- Client: The component in the host that manages MCP communication with a server.
- Server: The component that offers capabilities or data, such as tools, resources, or prompts.
The server does not automatically grant access to everything in the external system. It makes particular capabilities available; the host and client discover those capabilities and request them as needed.
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What are MCP tools, resources, and prompts?
These primitives differ in what they provide and who controls their use. The MCP specification overview describes their roles and control categories.
| Primitive | How it is used | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Tool | A model-controlled call to an executable function; it can retrieve information or take an action. | Look up order A-1041 or export a report. |
| Resource | Application-controlled contextual data supplied to the model. | A list of recent orders or the contents of a file. |
| Prompt | A user-controlled, selectable template or instruction. | A “summarize this order” prompt. |
These categories are complementary. A tool can perform a specific operation, a resource can provide relevant information, and a prompt can help a person start a task with a chosen template.
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MCP explained with an order-lookup example
The official TypeScript SDK calling guide illustrates how an application can discover and use these capabilities. Its order-support example is documentation code, not a report of a live merchant system being contacted.
- Discover the tool: The client asks the server what tools it offers. The server advertises a tool named
lookup-order. - Call the tool: The client requests that tool with the input
{"id":"A-1041"}. - Receive the result: The example tool returns text saying order A-1041 has three items and has shipped.
- Read a resource if more context is needed: The server can separately expose
orders://recent, a resource containing a list of recent orders. - Use a prompt if the person selects one: The server can offer a prompt template for summarizing an order.
MCP standardizes the communication in this exchange. The order data, the logic that looks it up, and the model’s interpretation remain responsibilities of their respective systems.
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What MCP does—and does not do
- It does: provide a shared protocol for an AI application to discover and request capabilities exposed by a server.
- It does not: act as the AI model, supply external data by itself, or make every operation in a connected service available.
- It does not replace: the server’s responsibility for its data and operations, or the host’s responsibility for the model experience.
What MCP can also do: interactive apps
MCP Apps are an extension, not a requirement for understanding or using the basic tools, resources, and prompts. In an announcement dated January 26, 2026, the maintainers described a pattern that pairs a tool carrying UI metadata with a UI resource that the host can render in a sandboxed iframe: MCP Apps announcement.
The MCP Apps quickstart demonstrates a tool that returns server time connected to an HTML UI resource. Its tutorial requires Node.js 20 or later and assumes familiarity with MCP tools and resources.
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Which SDK or transport should you use?
There is no universal best language or transport established by these documentation sources. Choose based on your implementation needs: the language your project uses, how the server will be deployed, which primitives it needs, and whether it needs an interactive UI extension.
The official Python SDK documentation lists stdio, Streamable HTTP, and SSE transports. The TypeScript SDK documents its own implementation. Check the current documentation for the chosen SDK and host rather than assuming that every implementation supports every feature.
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How current are the SDK and protocol versions?
Version labels are time-sensitive and describe specific documentation, not universal support across MCP hosts and servers. The Python SDK documentation identifies v2 as its current stable release line and describes v1 as the maintenance line; see the Python SDK v2 documentation and Python SDK v1 documentation. The TypeScript SDK v2 documentation identifies its stable release line as implementing the 2026-07-28 specification revision: TypeScript SDK v2 documentation.
Those statements concern the SDK documentation. They do not establish that every host or server implements every feature in that revision. For a real integration, verify compatibility between the specific host, server, SDK, and protocol features you plan to use.
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