Model Context Protocol

Before MCP, connecting an assistant to Jira meant writing a Jira integration; connecting it to Google Drive meant writing a Drive integration. MCP replaces N integrations per application with one protocol: a server exposes tools and data, a client speaks the protocol, and any client can use any server.

Anthropic published it as an open standard, and it is now the ordinary way Claude reaches anything outside itself.

The two halves

Role	What it is	Examples
MCP server	Exposes tools, resources and prompts over the protocol	A Jira server, a Postgres server, your internal API
MCP client	Consumes them	Claude Code, the Claude desktop app, an Agent SDK application

You mostly install servers and rarely write clients.

What it does not do

• It is not a permission system. MCP describes what a tool can do, not what Claude may do. That is permissions, configured separately — and this distinction is the single most important thing to get right before connecting a server that can write.
• It is not a Skill. A Skill is instructions telling Claude how to do something; an MCP server is a connection giving Claude access to something. See Skills vs MCP.
• It is not a Connector. Connectors are the managed, end-user-facing integrations in the Claude apps. Many are MCP underneath, but the install path, the audience and the admin controls differ. See MCP vs Connectors.
• It is not automatically safe. A server runs code with whatever credentials you give it. Read the source of any community server before connecting it to a system that matters.

Organisational control

Anthropic documents managed MCP for controlling which servers an organisation’s users may connect to. If you are rolling Claude Code out across a company, that page matters more than the quickstart: without it, every developer’s MCP configuration is their own decision.

Where it works

Claude Code, the Claude desktop app, Cowork and the Agent SDK are all MCP clients. Because Claude Code shares configuration across its surfaces, a server configured once is available from the terminal, the IDE, the desktop app and the web.