Model Context Protocol
Anthropic opened a protocol by which a model connects to files, databases and services the same way, and released the specification, the libraries and ready-made servers.
Why it matters
Connecting a model to data stopped being each vendor's separate business: instead of N times M integrations, one interface.
Until then every laboratory described tools in its own format, and the same connector to a store or a database had to be written again for each model. The protocol separates two roles: a server declares what it can do, a client decides what to call. Anthropic published the specification, the libraries and ready-made servers for Google Drive, Slack, GitHub, Git and Postgres, and added support to the desktop application. The company did not keep the protocol to itself; other vendors adopted it, and within a year it became the usual way to connect.