Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Open standard for connecting AI agents to external tools, resources, and prompts — the 'USB-C of AI integrations'.
Definition
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard (Anthropic, November 2024) that defines a unified way for AI agents to connect to external tools, data sources, and services. Before MCP, each assistant had its own plugin format; MCP standardizes the connection layer so one server can serve Claude and any MCP-compatible agent.
MCP exposes three concepts: Tools (functions the agent can call), Resources (data the agent can read), and Prompts (pre-defined prompt templates). The protocol runs over JSON-RPC via stdio, SSE, or HTTP.
Relevance to GEO
Exposing your API or data via an MCP server makes it discoverable and usable by a growing ecosystem of agents without building a custom integration per platform.