It always starts with “just one integration”. You want your AI agent to send a message to Slack. So you wire it up. A bit of custom code, some API calls, done. Then someone asks for GitHub access. Then Jira. Then your internal database. Then Notion. Before you realize it, you’re not building an AI system anymore; you’re maintaining a web of fragile integrations. Every new tool means new code. Every update breaks something. Every credential becomes a security risk. If you have 10 agents and 20 tools, you’re suddenly dealing with 200 possible connections. This is what Anthropic called the N×M problem . And that’s exactly the mess MCP (Model Context Protocol) was designed to fix. What Is MCP (Model Context Protocol)? At its core, MCP is simple; and that’s why it matters. MCP is an open standard that defines how AI agents connect to and use tools. Think of it like USB-C for AI.…