Model Context Protocol
What MCP standardises, the client-server split it enforces, the three things a server can offer, and why that standardisation does not remove the trust problem it sits on top of.
Read the Model Context Protocol guideConcepts it implements
A long conversation or agent trace is summarised and the window restarted from the summary, so the loop can continue past the context limit.
Tool callingA model emits a structured request to invoke an external function, and the result is returned as context for its next step.
MCPAn open wire protocol that standardises how an application hosting a language model discovers and calls external capabilities - tools, resources and prompts - exposed by servers.
Where Model Context Protocol sits
How this component relates to the rest of the stack. Items without a link are not covered here yet.
Alternatives
Solves a similar problem differently
- Bespoke tool APIs