What MCP Is: How AI Agents Connect to Real Systems

Part 2 of 6 - MCP Article Series ← Part 1: Why Connecting AI to Real Systems Is Still Hard The Model Context Protocol - MCP - is an open standard that defines how AI agents communicate with external systems. Not a library, not a framework, not a vendor product. A protocol - the same way HTTP defines how browsers and servers communicate. The practical result: write the integration once, and Any compliant Host can use it. MCP standardizes how capabilities are exposed to AI agents.