Why it matters

MCP is emerging as the standard for LLM tool integration. Understanding it opens up integrations without custom code and future-proofs LLM apps.

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The architecture

Roles: MCP Server exposes tools/data; MCP Client (LLM app or agent) consumes them.

Standard message types: initialize, list_tools, call_tool, list_resources, get_resource.

MCP rolesMCP ClientLLM appMCP Servertools + dataJSON-RPCover transportOne server, many clients; one client, many servers — enables ecosystem
MCP structure.
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How it works end to end

Tools: functions the server exposes for LLM to call. Server declares schemas.

Resources: data the server provides (files, DB rows, etc). LLM reads.

Prompts: server-provided prompt templates. Client uses.

Transports: stdio (local process), SSE (remote), Streamable HTTP.