What Is MCP (Model Context Protocol) — And Why Every Software Team Should Know About It
- Model Context Protocol (MCP), open-sourced by Anthropic in late 2024, is a standard for connecting AI models to external data sources and tools — essentially a universal plugin system for AI assistants.
- Instead of building a custom integration for each AI tool to access your database, CRM, or ERP, MCP defines a standard interface — build the MCP server once, and any MCP-compatible AI client can use it.
- For software teams: MCP means your NetSuite, WooCommerce, or Shopify data can be exposed to Claude, Cursor, and other AI tools through a single server — eliminating per-tool custom integrations.
- MCP is early but moving fast — Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Zed all support it. The ecosystem is growing weekly.
Every AI assistant today has a context window — what it knows when you talk to it. By default, that context is just what you type and what it was trained on. MCP extends the context: it lets an AI assistant read your database, query your API, browse your file system, and take actions — all through a standardised connection that any MCP-compatible AI can use.
The Before and After
WITHOUT MCP:
Claude → custom integration → NetSuite
Cursor → different custom integration → NetSuite
Internal AI tool → another custom integration → NetSuite
(3 integrations to maintain, each breaks separately)
WITH MCP:
NetSuite MCP Server (one server, one interface)
├── Claude Desktop connects
├── Cursor connects
└── Internal AI tool connects
(1 server, any MCP client just works)
What an MCP Server Exposes
An MCP server defines three things: Resources (data the AI can read — your order list, your inventory), Tools (actions the AI can take — create a draft SO, look up a customer), and Prompts (pre-built prompt templates for common tasks). For a WooCommerce business, an MCP server could expose: recent orders, customer query lookup, inventory levels, and draft product description generation — all usable from any connected AI tool.
Connect Claude Desktop to your WooCommerce store’s REST API via an MCP server and ask Claude “what are my top 5 selling products this month?” — Claude reads your data directly and answers. No export, no spreadsheet. The MCP server is a Node.js or Python process that translates Claude’s tool calls into WooCommerce API calls. Setup takes a day for a developer familiar with REST APIs.
References
- Model Context Protocol — Official DocsAnthropic — the MCP specification, SDK documentation, and example MCP server implementations.
- MCP GitHub RepositoryAnthropic — open-source MCP SDK and community MCP server examples including databases and APIs.
- Anthropic MCP AnnouncementAnthropic — the original MCP announcement blog post with rationale and design decisions.
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