MCP
Also written Model Context Protocol
An open protocol, introduced by Anthropic in 2024 and now broadly adopted, that standardises how agents connect to external tools and data sources. A server advertises tools, resources and prompts; any compatible host can use them. It is the USB-C of agent tooling — and, like any standard connector, it turns a per-integration problem into a supply-chain problem: an agent may load servers from many authors, each contributing text and capabilities to the same trusted context.
See also tool registration · tool poisoning · tool-name shadowing
Related terms
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Tool registration
Agents & architecture
The handshake in which a server tells the host what tools it offers, and the host puts those names, descriptions and schemas into the model's context.
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Tool poisoning
Attack concepts
Hiding instructions in the metadata an agent reads to learn how to use a tool — an MCP server's tool description, its parameter documentation, its schema…
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Tool-name shadowing
Attack concepts
A malicious server registers a tool whose name or description collides with a trusted one — the same name, a near-identical name, or a description…
Agents & architecture
Where the attacks above actually land. The vocabulary here is worth precision, because the difference between "the model decided" and "the tool ran" is the difference between a risk and an incident.