The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard and framework for securely sharing context between applications and large language models. MCP defines a client-server architecture where MCP servers expose data sources and tools (repositories, web pages, business systems, etc.) and MCP clients (LLM-based assistants and agents) connect to request and exchange contextual information. By standardizing APIs, message schemas, authentication scopes, and connector patterns, MCP replaces fragmented integrations with a consistent, extensible approach that improves relevance, safety, and developer productivity. Major providers and projects (including Anthropic, Microsoft, and GitHub) have published implementations, examples, and learning curricula to help teams build MCP servers and clients across multiple languages.