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The MCP Architecture: Clients vs Servers

Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server Engineering

Architecture Overview

MCP operates on a Client-Server model.

  1. The Host: The application (e.g., Claude Desktop) that wants to use the AI.
  2. The Client: A component within the Host that speaks MCP.
  3. The Server: Your application that provides specific data or tools.

Transport Layers

Servers and Clients talk over Transport Layers. The most common is Stdio (Standard Input/Output), where the client starts the server process and communicates via text streams.

Assignment: Diagram the flow of a message from an LLM prompt to an MCP tool and back.