What is MCP? The Model Context Protocol explained: origin, governance, how servers work, a wiring example, tool poisoning and what to build first.
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets any AI application talk to any tool or data source through one common interface. Anthropic introduced and open-sourced it in November 2024; OpenAI and Google adopted it in spring 2025; and in December 2025 Anthropic donated it to the Linux Foundation, where it now lives under neutral governance. If you have ever plugged a keyboard, a monitor and a charger into the same USB-C port, you already understand the value proposition. I am not writing this from the sidelines. My own orchestration system, SHINE, runs on MCP servers in production every working day: file access, project data, deployment tools, all wired to agents through this one protocol. So this is the explanation I wish someone had handed me before I read the spec: what MCP is, why it won, how a server actually works, how to wire your first…