MCP — The Model Context Protocol — an open standard that lets any AI assistant plug into any tool or data source without custom integration code.
AI agent — An AI system that doesn't just answer once but works toward a goal in a loop — taking actions, reading the results, and deciding what to do next.
inference — Running a trained model to get answers — the phase where AI is actually used, as opposed to trained.
grounding — Tying a model's answers to checkable sources — retrieved documents, live data, tool results — instead of letting it answer from memory alone.
Why it matters
Coding agents pick models from months-old training data with no pricing or benchmark knowledge; this wires live catalog, rankings and per-provider latency into the AI agentAn AI system that doesn't just answer once but works toward a goal in a loop — taking actions, reading the results, and deciding what to do next.Full definition → so the recommendation is groundingTying a model's answers to checkable sources — retrieved documents, live data, tool results — instead of letting it answer from memory alone.Full definition →.
