Model Context Protocol

What is an MCP server?

MCP is an open standard that lets AI assistants talk to your tools and data through one common interface. An MCP server is a small adapter that wraps a system — Figma, Sentry, a database — and exposes it in a way any MCP-capable assistant can use.

Think of MCP as a USB-C port for AI apps: one standard plug. Build a server once, and every assistant that speaks MCP can connect — no custom integration per app.

How a request flows

The assistant never touches your system directly — it speaks MCP to the server, which does the real work. Press play to watch a single request travel end to end.

AI assistantHost + MCP client
MCP serverSpeaks MCP
Your tools & dataAPIs · files · databases

1/7You ask the assistant a question it can't answer on its own.

What a server exposes

Every MCP server offers some mix of three primitives.

Tools

Actions the model can invoke — search issues, create a record, run a query.

tools/call → create_task

Resources

Read-only data the model can pull in for context — files, records, documents.

resources/read → file://…

Prompts

Reusable, parameterised prompt templates the server offers to the user or model.

prompts/get → summarize

How it connects

An MCP server runs in one of two places.

Local (stdio)

The client launches the server as a process on your machine and talks to it over stdin/stdout. Great for local tools and files.

Remote (HTTP / SSE)

The server runs as a hosted URL the client connects to over HTTP. Auth is usually OAuth. Every server in this directory is remote.

Ready to connect one?

Browse the MCP servers Signifly uses, with setup for your client.

Browse the servers