Discussion - Topic: Model Context Protocol (MCP)

This week's topic: Model Context Protocol (MCP)

As described in Thoughtworks Technology Radar Vol. #32.

One of the biggest challenges in prompting is ensuring the AI tool has access to all the context relevant to the task. Often, this context already exists within the systems we use all day: wikis, issue trackers, databases or observability systems. Seamless integration between AI tools and these information sources can significantly improve the quality of AI-generated outputs.

The Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard released by Anthropic, provides a standardized framework for integrating LLM applications with external data sources and tools. It defines MCP servers and clients, where servers access the data sources and clients integrate and use this data to enhance prompts. Many coding assistants have already implemented MCP integration, allowing them to act as MCP clients. MCP servers can be run in two ways: Locally, as a Python or Node process running on the user’s machine, or remotely, as a server that the MCP client connects to via SSE (though we haven’t seen any usage of the remote server variant yet). Currently, MCP is primarily used in the first way, with developers cloning open-source MCP server implementations. While locally run servers offer a neat way to avoid third-party dependencies, they remain less accessible to nontechnical users and introduce challenges such as governance and update management. That said, it’s easy to imagine how this standard could evolve into a more mature and user-friendly ecosystem in the future.

Zoom link will be added about 5 min before the event starts.

Discussion Resources :

Please try to read/watch before the meetup as it will help drive the discussions.

MCP Is the New Control Point in AI—Are CIOs Ready for the Lock-In Battle? By Dion Hinchcliffe
https://futurumgroup.com/insights/mcp-is-the-new-control-point-in-ai-are-cios-ready-for-the-lock-in-battle/

The Model Context Protocol: Getting beneath the hype By Karrtik Iyer
https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-us/insights/blog/generative-ai/model-context-protocol-beneath-hype

What Is the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and How It Works By Descope
https://www.descope.com/learn/post/mcp

June 2025 MCP Content Round-Up: Incidents, Updates, Releases, and more! By Eunjee Choi
https://www.pomerium.com/blog/june-2025-mcp-content-round-up

Building Agents with Model Context Protocol - Full Workshop with Mahesh Murag of Anthropic By AI Engineer Summit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQmXtrmQ5Zg