MCP: The Model Context Protocol

Before MCP, connecting an agent to tools meant bespoke glue: framework A's tool format × tool B's API × your auth handling, repeated for every pairing. N frameworks × M tools = N×M integrations, all subtly different.

MCP standardizes the boundary: a server exposes capabilities once; any MCP-compatible client (Claude, IDEs, your own harness) can use them. It's the same play as LSP for language tooling — write the GitHub server once, get every editor's integration free.