Introduction to MCP

What is MCP

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol released by Anthropic in November 2024, designed to standardize the interaction between large language models (LLMs) and external data sources/tools. Dubbed as the "USB-C port for AI applications," it provides a unified interface that simplifies connections between AI models and various tools, databases, and services, solving the traditional M×N integration problem (where M AI models and N tools would require M×N custom integrations). Using a client-server architecture, MCP defines standardized communication rules that support dynamic tool discovery, real-time data interaction, and secure access control.

Key advantages include:

• Standardized Integration: MCP provides a unified interface that enables LLMs to easily connect with and utilize different data sources and tools, simplifying the integration process.
• Ecosystem Expansion: A growing number of software and tool vendors are joining the MCP ecosystem, transforming their product capabilities into MCP services, thereby enriching the resources available to AI models.
• Lowered Barriers: MCP significantly reduces the complexity of LLMs calling external tools, software, and interfaces, making it easier for developers to extend model functionalities.

The introduction of this protocol has greatly encouraged software and tool vendors to participate in building the MCP Server ecosystem, opening their product functionalities as MCP services for AI models. We firmly believe that the numerous open-source models in our community, combined with their surrounding inference and fine-tuning frameworks and the MCP ecosystem, will inspire more innovation and drive continuous technological and application advancements.