agenticweb.wiki

Model Context Protocol

Last checked · 27 primary sources

This page is about the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open protocol that connects AI applications to external tools and data. For the browser API that lets a web page offer tools to an agent, see WebMCP. For finding MCP servers, see Official MCP Registry and MCP Server Cards.

Overview

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol, first released by Anthropic in November 2024, that gives AI applications a standard way to connect to outside tools and data [1][11]. An AI application (the host) contains clients that connect to servers using JSON-RPC 2.0, and a server can offer tools for the model to call, resources (context and data) and prompt templates [1]. A server runs either locally, launched as a subprocess over stdio, or remotely behind a single Streamable HTTP endpoint [6][7]. The current revision, 2026-07-28, makes the protocol stateless: it drops the initialize handshake and protocol sessions, so every request carries its own protocol version and client capabilities [3][4].

Who uses it

Each URL below is a public remote MCP endpoint named in its operator’s own documentation. Each was checked on 2026-10-28 with no login: a server/discover request (MCP 2026-07-28) where the server answers without authentication, or otherwise an unauthenticated request plus a fetch of the OAuth protected-resource metadata it points to. A 401 shows the endpoint is live and protected; it does not show which MCP revision the server implements.

Who reads it

Statements by client vendors that their product supports MCP. Most predate the 2026-07-28 revision, and none of them shows which revisions a client implements.

Recent coverage

See also

References

  1. Model Context Protocol, Specification - Model Context Protocol, revision 2026-07-28, checked 2026-10-28: "Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol that enables seamless integration between LLM applications and external data sources and tools. Whether you’re building an AI-powered IDE, enhancing a chat interface, or creating custom AI workflows, MCP provides a standardized way to connect LLMs with the context they need." "The protocol uses JSON-RPC 2.0 messages to establish communication between: Hosts: LLM applications that initiate connections Clients: Connectors within the host application Servers: Services that provide context and capabilities" "Servers offer any of the following features to clients: Resources: Context and data, for the user or the AI model to use Prompts: Templated messages and workflows for users Tools: Functions for the AI model to execute" — https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2026-07-28
  2. Model Context Protocol, Versioning - Model Context Protocol, checked 2026-10-28: "The current protocol version is 2026-07-28." "The Model Context Protocol uses string-based version identifiers following the format YYYY-MM-DD, to indicate the last date backwards incompatible changes were made." "Calling it is optional: a client is free to send any request directly and handle a version error if one comes back." — https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/2026-07-28/learn/versioning
  3. Model Context Protocol, Key Changes - Model Context Protocol (changelog for revision 2026-07-28), checked 2026-10-28: "Make MCP stateless: remove the initialize/notifications/initialized handshake." — https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2026-07-28/changelog
  4. David Soria Parra and Den Delimarsky, The 2026-07-28 Specification | Model Context Protocol Blog, 2026-07-28: "The highlight of this release is a stateless protocol core - MCP is transforming from a bidirectional stateful protocol into a request/response stateless protocol." "MCP is foundational to Microsoft Foundry, enabling us to scale from dozens of integrations to thousands." — https://blog.modelcontextprotocol.io/posts/2026-07-28/
  5. Model Context Protocol, Protocol Versions | MCP Ruby SDK (official Ruby SDK documentation, table of protocol revisions), checked 2026-10-28: "2024-11-05 Handshake Initial protocol revision" — https://ruby.sdk.modelcontextprotocol.io/protocol-versions/
  6. Model Context Protocol, Streamable HTTP - Model Context Protocol, revision 2026-07-28, checked 2026-10-28: "The server exposes a single HTTP endpoint (the MCP endpoint) that accepts POST." — https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2026-07-28/basic/transports/streamable-http
  7. Model Context Protocol, stdio - Model Context Protocol, revision 2026-07-28, checked 2026-10-28: "In the stdio transport, the client launches the MCP server as a subprocess." — https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2026-07-28/basic/transports/stdio
  8. David Soria Parra, Sam Morrow and Tadas Antanavicius, SEP-2127: MCP Server Cards - HTTP Server Discovery - Model Context Protocol (status Final, Extensions Track), checked 2026-10-28: "Cards themselves can be hosted at any unreserved URI, with <streamable-http-url>/server-card reserved as the recommended location." — https://modelcontextprotocol.io/seps/2127-mcp-server-cards
  9. Model Context Protocol, The MCP Registry - Model Context Protocol, checked 2026-10-28: "The MCP Registry is currently in preview." "The MCP Registry is the official centralized metadata repository for publicly accessible MCP servers, backed by major trusted contributors to the MCP ecosystem such as Anthropic, GitHub, PulseMCP, and Microsoft." — https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry/about
  10. Model Context Protocol, Governance and Stewardship - Model Context Protocol, checked 2026-10-28: "Model Context Protocol has been established as Model Context Protocol a Series of LF Projects, LLC." "Lead Maintainers are the final decision makers (also known as BDFL - Benevolent Dictator for Life)." "All outbound code and specifications will be made available under the Project License." — https://modelcontextprotocol.io/community/governance
  11. Anthropic, Introducing the Model Context Protocol \ Anthropic, 2024-11-25: "Today, we’re open-sourcing the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a new standard for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data lives, including content repositories, business tools, and development environments." — https://www.anthropic.com/news/model-context-protocol
  12. Anthropic, Donating MCP to the Agentic AI Foundation \ Anthropic, 2025-12-09: "Today, we’re donating the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), a directed fund under the Linux Foundation, co-founded by Anthropic, Block and OpenAI, with support from Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cloudflare, and Bloomberg." "The Model Context Protocol’s governance model will remain unchanged: the project’s maintainers will continue to prioritize community input and transparent decision-making." — https://www.anthropic.com/news/donating-the-model-context-protocol-and-establishing-of-the-agentic-ai-foundation
  13. Linux Foundation, Linux Foundation Announces the Formation of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), Anchored by New Project Contributions Including Model Context Protocol (MCP), goose and AGENTS.md (press release), 2025-12-09: "The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the formation of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), and founding contributions of three leading projects driving innovation in open source AI; Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), Block’s goose, and OpenAI’s AGENTS.md." — https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/linux-foundation-announces-the-formation-of-the-agentic-ai-foundation
  14. Hugging Face, Hugging Face MCP Server · Hugging Face (Hub documentation), checked 2026-10-28: "The Hugging Face MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server connects your MCP‑compatible AI assistant (for example Codex, Cursor, VS Code extensions, Zed, ChatGPT or Claude Desktop) directly to the Hugging Face Hub." — https://huggingface.co/docs/hub/agents-mcp
  15. Cloudflare, Cloudflare’s own MCP servers · Cloudflare Agents docs, checked 2026-10-28 (the page lists https://docs.mcp.cloudflare.com/mcp as the documentation server): "Connect to each server’s Streamable HTTP endpoint at /mcp." "The servers support the MCP 2026-07-28 specification and stateless requests from 2025 Streamable HTTP clients." — https://developers.cloudflare.com/agents/model-context-protocol/cloudflare/servers-for-cloudflare/
  16. GitHub, github/github-mcp-server (README, which gives https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/ as the remote server URL), checked 2026-10-28 (text checked at the raw.githubusercontent.com copy): "The remote GitHub MCP Server is hosted by GitHub and provides the easiest method for getting up and running." — https://github.com/github/github-mcp-server
  17. Stripe, Model Context Protocol (MCP) | Stripe Documentation (public preview; gives https://mcp.stripe.com as the server URL), checked 2026-10-28: "The Stripe Model Context Protocol (MCP) server provides tools that AI agents can use to interact with the Stripe API and search the Stripe knowledge base, including documentation and support articles." — https://docs.stripe.com/mcp
  18. Linear, MCP server – Linear Docs, checked 2026-10-28: "Linear’s MCP server follows the authenticated remote MCP spec, so the server is centrally hosted and managed." "For all new setups, use the primary Streamable HTTP endpoint at https://mcp.linear.app/mcp." — https://linear.app/docs/mcp
  19. Anthropic, MCP 2026-07-28 spec: stateless core, coming to Claude | Claude by Anthropic, 2026-07-28: "The fifth spec release of the Model Context Protocol, MCP 2026-07-28, is live today." "Support is being rolled out across Claude products." — https://claude.com/resources/articles/bringing-mcp-2026-07-28-to-claude
  20. Anthropic, Get started with custom connectors using remote MCP | Claude Help Center, page last modified 2026-10-01: "Custom connectors using remote MCP are available on Claude, Cowork, and Claude Desktop for users on Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans." — https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11175166-get-started-with-custom-connectors-using-remote-mcp
  21. OpenAI, New tools and features in the Responses API | OpenAI, 2025-05-21. openai.com refused our automated fetch (HTTP 403), so the text was checked at the Internet Archive copy captured 2026-09-26, linked here: "This includes support for all remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers" — https://web.archive.org/web/20260926142325/https://openai.com/index/new-tools-and-features-in-the-responses-api/
  22. Cursor, Bugbot, Background Agent access to everyone, and one-click MCP install · Cursor (Cursor 1.0 changelog), 2025-06-04: "You can now set up MCP servers in Cursor with one click, and together with OAuth support, you can easily authenticate servers that support it." — https://cursor.com/changelog/1-0
  23. Harald Kirschner, Connor Peet and Tyler Leonhardt, Microsoft, The Complete MCP Experience: Full Specification Support in VS Code (VS Code blog), 2025-06-12: "VS Code now supports the complete Model Context Protocol specification." — https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2025/06/12/full-mcp-spec-support
  24. Google, Google announces Gemini CLI: your open-source AI agent (Google blog), 2025-06-25: "Extend Gemini CLI’s capabilities through built-in support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) or bundled extensions" — https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/developers-tools/introducing-gemini-cli-open-source-ai-agent/
  25. Rebecca Bellan, TechCrunch, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Block join new Linux Foundation effort to standardize the AI agent era, 2025-12-09: "Donating MCP to AAIF signals that the protocol won’t be controlled by a single vendor." — https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/09/openai-anthropic-and-block-join-new-linux-foundation-effort-to-standardize-the-ai-agent-era/
  26. Beth Pariseau, TechTarget, Stateless MCP seen as step forward for enterprise AI, 2026-07-28: "Experts say the project’s update this week will make it more suitable for enterprise production use, but it comes with a breaking change for existing systems." — https://www.techtarget.com/news/Stateless-MCP-seen-as-step-forward-for-enterprise-AI/857016/
  27. Samuel Axon, Ars Technica, With a stateless makeover, new MCP spec targets enterprise scale, 2026-07-30: "Most notably, MCP’s protocol core is now stateless, so requests are no longer dependent on a session tied to an individual server instance." — https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/07/with-a-stateless-makeover-new-mcp-spec-targets-enterprise-scale/

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