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Integrating AI Systems
Common Language
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard developed to enable seamless integration between large language models (LLMs), applications (tools), and external data sources. Anthropic [1] first announced the protocol back in November 2024 and is therefore officially considered its main developer. At the time of writing this article, version 2025-06-18 of the protocol specification had just been released (version 2025-11-25 has since been released). Anthropic looked to establish the protocol as an open standard from the outset and is working closely with the community to push the protocol's development forward. Besides the GitHub repository [2], the project website has comprehensive documentation of the protocol specification [3].
Standardized Communication
Just as USB created a universal interface that lets any USB device connect to any USB port, eliminating the need for device-specific connectors, MCP creates a standardized way for AI models to connect to different data sources and applications. Before the introduction of USB, each device needed its own proprietary connector. Similarly, before MCP, developers had to create custom integrations for each combination of AI application and data source.
MCP establishes a standard that lets any compatible client work with any compatible server, which significantly reduces the complexity of integrating AI models, because MCP eliminates the need to develop individual interfaces for different applications. For example, natural language can communicate with a specific application and query data.
Imagine an LDAP server with a large user database. Users need an LDAP client to read the data from the server. On a terminal, this typically would be the ldapsearch tool.
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