Explains how MCP's client-server protocol works (STDIO vs Streamable HTTP transports) and shows a concrete hosted browser MCP server example, useful grounding for engineers building their first agent tool integrations.
This explainer defines the Model Context Protocol as an open standard (introduced by Anthropic in late 2024) that lets AI models call tools, read resources, and use prompts through a single interface instead of custom per-model integrations.
It walks through the client-server JSON-RPC exchange, STDIO vs Streamable HTTP transports, and uses Browserbase's hosted browser MCP server (navigate, act, observe, extract) as a concrete example of giving a model real web-browsing ability.
