In short
A standard way to give an agent a tool. An MCP server exposes something (image generation, a database, a search API) that any agent can call the same way.
MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is a convention for how an agent discovers and calls tools. An MCP server wraps a capability and describes it; an agent that speaks MCP can use it without custom code.
It matters for portability. A tool exposed over MCP works with any harness that supports the protocol, so when the harness changes, the tools come along. Our creative tool, Forge, is an MCP server: an agent asks for five images in the house style and gets them back inside its own loop, not in another tab.
You do not need to know how it works to benefit from it. You need to know that tools built this way are not locked to one vendor.
Example
What it looks like.
An agent, mid-task: call forge.generate with the prompt and the style guide, receive five files, place them in the post. No human opened an image tool.Related
Read next.
- connectorA link between an agent and a real system: email, calendar, files, the CRM, the site. Connecting your people to their systems is one of the first things we do in month one.Read the definition
- harnessThe software that runs an agent: loads the instructions, connects the tools, keeps the schedule, delivers messages. Replaceable. The instructions are not.Read the definition
- agentSoftware that reads its instructions, looks at the situation, takes actions with real tools, and reports back. Runs on a schedule or on a trigger, without being prompted.Read the definition