MCP Protocol

Anthropic has open-sourced the MCP protocol , which provides a universal and open standard for connecting AI systems with data sources, replacing fragmented integration methods with a single protocol.

As a result, it allows AI systems to access the necessary data in a simpler and more reliable way. With this protocol, developers can connect to multiple data sources through the standardized MCP interface without writing customized code for different data sources, significantly reducing integration complexity and enhancing reliability.

This “plug-and-play” feature enables businesses to quickly inject business data streams into large model training and inference, accelerating knowledge learning and pattern discovery.

Brief Overview of MCP Architecture

Architecture Diagram

MCP Hosts: Programs such as Claude Desktop, IDE, or AI Tools that wish to access data via MCP
MCP Clients: Protocol clients that maintain one-to-one connections with servers
MCP Servers: Lightweight programs that provide specific capabilities through the standard Model Context Protocol
Local Data Sources: Computer files, databases, and services that are safely accessible by MCP servers
Remote Services: External systems on the internet that MCP servers can connect to (e.g., through APIs)