An open-source standard for the interaction between AI applications and data sources/local systems/tools. It is designed to address the integration challenges of the Agentic AI ecosystem.
### Core Architecture
```mermaid
flowchart TD
subgraph Host["HOST APPLICATION (Claude Desktop)"]
direction TB
LLM["LLM (Orchestrator)"]
Client["MCP CLIENT (Manages state, transports, and sessions)"]
LLM -->|"Interprets schema / calls tools"| Client
end
subgraph Server["MCP SERVER"]
direction LR
Resources["RESOURCES<br>(Read-Only)"]
Tools["TOOLS<br>(Write/Execute)"]
Prompts["PROMPTS<br>(Templates)"]
end
Client -->|"MCP Transport: JSON-RPC 2.0 over Stdio/SSE"| Server
```
![[MCP Host]]
![[MCP Client]]
![[MCP Server]]
By standardizing these roles, MCP resolves the $N$ (applications) $\times M$ (tools) integration problem, reducing it to $N + M$.
MCP uses the [[JSON-RPC 2.0]] specification. See [[MCP deep-dive]].
[Enabling MCP in .Net](https://aistudio.google.com/app/prompts?state=%7B%22ids%22:%5B%221ujjKEmcf2a7SRQmYMou9SvolUSyOTUKF%22%5D,%22action%22:%22open%22,%22userId%22:%22107302245917154270742%22,%22resourceKeys%22:%7B%7D%7D&usp=sharing)