Model Context Protocol
An open standard for connecting a model to tools and data, so a client and a tool server that have never met can work together.
a protocol · the vocabulary
MCPMCP server
Published by Anthropic in late 2024 and now supported widely. It matters commercially because it turns integrations from N×M bespoke connections into a market of servers anybody can plug in, which is why the catalogue tracks the servers as products in their own right.