Hello!

Seems like Model Context Protocol has been all the rage recently. And we’ve got the standard range of feelings about it as well. Some people think it’s a fad or unnecessary for one reason or another, others think any day now we’ll all get our personal JARVIS devices in the mail and then there’s those in between.

In case you’re new here (welcome!) Model Context Protocol is a new standard for empowering LLM users to access the power of your application (and their data inside your service) seamlessly from inside their LLM chat with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor, etc. But unlike previous techniques for integrations, MCP eliminates a lot of the explicit glue code and instead lets an LLM do that work for you (and more).

If that still seems a bit abstract, try thinking about how your web browser can access and render a response from any server that supports HTTP (as long as the response is HTML/CSS/JS). With MCP, your favorite AI Agent apps can access and interact with any server that supports MCP.

See why I’ve been so excited about the value and potential impact of MCP?

Even though nobody can predict the future, I want to tell you where I personally think things are going with this technology. But first, I’m going to tell you where we’re at right now, with:

Real-world functionality today

Security

Adoption by users

MCP API design

Today's real-world MCP functionality

The reality is, the Model Context Protocol is already providing a lot of value for real people. I’ll give you more examples of this in a future email, but you need to know that this is definitely not all hype .

Here's how I'm using MCP right now:

I’ve built some servers for personal use for automating my processes more effectively with AI

I’ve built servers for your use in the epic workshop app to aid your learning experience

I’ve installed third party servers to make my AI assistant more effective at triaging and fixing bugs

And I’ve heard enterprise teams are jumping at the opportunity to use MCP to make agents more aware and capable of their company internal tools and processes, and developers are already using stripe’s “paidTool” utility to charge users for their MCP servers. Exciting things are happening!

That said, it’s new and bleeding edge stuff . A lot will change in the coming months and years, and a lot needs to change before we get to the peak experience I expect we'll reach.

Today’s Reality: MCP Security

Security is a big subject all on its own. Just like at the beginning of the web browser, there were some significant security holes that we had to deal with to get to the relative security we find ourselves in today, MCP has some way to go. Though this time, we get to piggy-back on the work done to make the rest of the web more secure, and there are many cases where the value is significant enough already for people to put the effort into making things more secure by default.

Also like with browser security, most security improvements are and will continue to come on the client-side of the spec. Luckily most of us will be working on the server side (interestingly, making the server simpler at the expense of the client was a stated goal of the MCP spec authors for this exact reason).

Today’s Reality: Users are (slowly) forming new habits

One big holdup to MCP adoption for users is the fact that it requires a change in workflow and people generally really struggle to change their workflows.

We think “I need to send an email to let Jessie know that bug is fixed,” because we’re just so used to opening up our email client, and often do it before remembering that we could just tell the AI assistant (which we’re probably already talking to about the bug) to send the email. This habit is something that will change naturally over time. I don’t know about you, but I’ve already moved most of my “let me google that” use cases over to “let me ask AI that”.

People are willing to change their workflows when the value is significant enough. The value just needs to be demonstrated. And fixing the next issue will accelerate the pace people adapt to the new workflow.

Today’s Reality: MCP Server Quality & Discovery needs work

The next challenge for MCP adoption by users is discovery of quality MCP servers . And that's an opportunity for us developers.

First, there just aren’t enough quality MCP servers to begin with. There are already tens of thousands of servers, but too many of them are just a wrapper around an existing REST API. That would be a bad UX (user experience) for a website and it’s certainly bad AX (agent experience) for an MCP server. I’ll explain why this is bad and how to make it better in another email. Stay tuned!

Secondly, finding and installing good MCP servers can be a pain. This is slowly improving.

I’m working on improving the number of quality MCP servers with the workshops I’m working on . Installation of MCP servers is also getting much better as well, but still has further to go. Once people start being able to easily add quality servers to their AI Assistants, then it will become much more natural for them to do more and more within the context of their AI Assistant conversations rather than having to context-copy from one tool to the next.

I think in the next year these issues will be solved and we’ll be able to address some of the other bigger challenges (like security and other gaps in the spec). Apps like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini which consumers use to communicate with AI will offer a much more seamless experience interfacing with the services we offer via MCP.

The future is bright.

Even though nobody can tell the future, I’m personally betting on the future involving a LOT of MCP , and if I may be so bold , I would suggest that by next year a lot of you will be working with MCP servers (as both consumers and developers) for the majority of your day.

The benefits are here today, the potential is there tomorrow, and the investment is being made by all the right players. What an awesome time to be developing software!

I’ve got more I want to share with you soon, so stay tuned and I’ll be in your inbox again before you know it with more practical knowledge to share to help you contribute to this new and growing ecosystem.

— Kent

P.S. I've been working hard on something I'll be announcing soon. You're not going to want to miss it. Stay tuned!

What I see in MCP 👀