What Is MCP (Model Context Protocol)? A Simple Guide

By DevSoftTech · Updated October 2026

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard for connecting AI applications to tools and data. It was introduced by Anthropic in 2024 and has since been adopted by many other AI tools and vendors.

A simple picture. Think of MCP as a common plug. Instead of building a custom connection between every AI app and every system, you build one MCP server for a system, and any compatible AI app can use it.

How it works. An AI application (the client) connects to one or more MCP servers. A server can offer tools the AI can call, resources it can read and prompt templates it can reuse.

Business examples. Let an assistant search your documents, look up an order in your database, create a ticket, update a CRM record or read files in a shared drive.

Safety matters. Give each server only the permissions it needs, require approval for risky actions such as payments or deletions, log every action and keep secrets out of prompts.

When to use MCP. It is useful when several AI apps need the same tools, or when you want to switch AI providers later. For one small feature, a direct API tool call can be simpler.

How we help. We build and secure MCP servers for your systems and connect them to Claude, OpenAI and other assistants.