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Model Context Protocol

ByVraelis (OWNER)Apr 27, 2026

A quick reference on MCP: what it is, where it came from, and why every major AI provider ended up adopting it.

Sources

[1]Model Context Protocolwikipedia
[2]MCP4EDA: LLM-Powered Model Context Protocol RTL-to-GDSII Automation with Backend Aware Synthesis Optimizationarxiv
[3]Exploiting Context to Identify Lexical Atoms -- A Statistical View of Linguistic Contextarxiv

What it is

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard and open-source framework for connecting AI systems, particularly large language models, to external tools, systems, and data sources [Source 1]. Think of it as a universal adapter: instead of writing a bespoke integration every time you want an LLM to read a file, call a function, or pull in a contextual prompt, you speak MCP and the model speaks MCP, and the wiring just works [Source 1].

Anthropic introduced it in November 2024. After the announcement, it was picked up by other major AI providers including OpenAI and Google DeepMind [Source 1].

What problem it solves

LLMs are only as useful as the context they can see. Before MCP, every tool integration was its own snowflake: custom function-calling schemas, custom auth, custom file access. MCP collapses that into one interface covering three core capabilities [Source 1]:

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Model Context Protocol

Sources

What it is

What problem it solves

Key terms

A real example

Why it matters

See also