# MCP is an open protocol for connecting LLMs to tools and data

> Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open Apache 2.0 standard for LLM hosts to access tools, resources, and prompts via JSON-RPC.

## Answer

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard, announced by Anthropic in November 2024, for connecting LLM applications to external tools, data, and prompt templates. Hosts embed MCP clients; separate MCP servers expose capabilities over stdio or HTTP using JSON-RPC 2.0 messages.

## Details

### Status

- Apache 2.0 licensed, maintained at [github.com/modelcontextprotocol](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol)
- Spec versioned by date; stable baseline is `2024-11-05`
- Adopted by Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible clients

### Roles

| Role | Responsibility |
|------|----------------|
| Host | LLM application (e.g. IDE, chat client) |
| Client | Protocol handler inside the host; one server per client |
| Server | Exposes tools, resources, prompts |

The host decides which tool results reach the model.

## See also

- [[mcp-json-rpc-format]]
- [[mcp-tools-resources-prompts]]

## Sources

- [MCP Introduction](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/introduction)
- [MCP Specification](https://spec.modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2024-11-05/)

## Sources

- [MCP Introduction](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/introduction)
- [MCP Specification 2024-11-05](https://spec.modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2024-11-05/)