--- title: "MCP (Model Context Protocol)" summary: "The Model Context Protocol is an open standard for connecting AI assistants to external tools and data, so that a model can call a system's real operations instead of being told about them in a prompt." canonical_url: https://entitybind.com/glossary/mcp last_updated: 2026-10-15 copy: full --- # MCP (Model Context Protocol) > The Model Context Protocol is an open standard for connecting AI assistants to external tools and data, so that a model can call a system's real operations instead of being told about them in a prompt. Canonical page: https://entitybind.com/glossary/mcp Last updated: 2026-10-15 Glossary · Interfaces ## How to read this The definition as the field writes it comes first, weaknesses and all. What Entity Bind does about it comes last, in its own paragraph, so you can take one without the other. [Filed under interfaces](https://entitybind.com/glossary#integration). By [James Rooney](https://entitybind.com/about), founder of Entity Bind · Last revised 15 October 2026 ## What MCP (Model Context Protocol) means MCP defines how a client — an assistant, an IDE, an agent framework — discovers and calls the capabilities a server exposes. A server advertises tools with typed input schemas, plus resources and prompts; the client presents them to the model, and the model's requests are executed by the server rather than imagined by the model. The transport is either stdio, where the server runs as a local process, or streamable HTTP for a remote deployment. The reason it matters for a data product is that the alternative is worse. Without it, integrating a resolver into an agent means pasting API documentation into a prompt and hoping the model constructs valid calls, with no schema enforcement and no shared authentication story. With it, the agent gets typed operations and the operator keeps control of credentials, tenancy and limits. The security questions worth asking of any MCP server are about identity and blast radius: how is the tenant determined, can it be supplied as a parameter, what can a single credential do, and are the rate limits shared with the HTTP surface or effectively doubled by it. Entity Bind exposes eleven tools over MCP across both transports, authenticated with the same API key as the HTTP API. It is the same pipeline, the same evidence, the same tenancy and the same credit rule: two of the eleven tools are billable and nine are free and unmetered, rate limits are shared with the HTTP surface rather than doubled, and the tenant is derived from the credential on every call and is never a request parameter. ## Where this shows up in Entity Bind Three pages where this term stops being vocabulary and starts changing an answer, a payload or a price. - [The MCP server](https://entitybind.com/mcp): Eleven tools over the Model Context Protocol, on the same credentials, tenancy, rate limits and credit rule as the HTTP API. - [AI agents](https://entitybind.com/use-cases/ai-agents): What a resolution tool should return to an agent when it does not know, and why a best guess is the wrong answer. - [The API reference](https://entitybind.com/api): The REST surface: payloads, the decision outcomes, the error model, the usage block and the ceiling on the confidence field. The fastest way past a definition is a file: which of your rows are the same company, which of your existing matches we would not have made, and what we could not decide. [Start free →](https://app.entitybind.com/app?signup=1) ## The terms next to this one Each with its own sentence, because the next question is usually about the word beside this one. - [Tool call](https://entitybind.com/glossary/tool-call): A tool call is a single invocation of an exposed operation by a model or agent, with structured arguments and a structured result — the unit that is authenticated, metered and audited. - [Idempotency](https://entitybind.com/glossary/idempotency): An operation is idempotent when performing it repeatedly has the same effect as performing it once, which is what makes a retry after a timeout safe rather than duplicating work. - [Decision receipt](https://entitybind.com/glossary/decision-receipt): A decision receipt is the durable, retrievable record of why a particular match was made — the features, the probability, the thresholds in force, the sources cited and the version of the pipeline that decided — addressable by an identifier returned with the answer. - [Review queue](https://entitybind.com/glossary/review-queue): A review queue is where records the system refused to decide are held for a human, and the quality of a resolver is largely determined by how small, how well-evidenced and how accountable that queue is. - [Abstention](https://entitybind.com/glossary/abstention): An abstention is a first-class 'we do not know' returned instead of a match: the record comes back unresolved, with a ranked shortlist, a typed reason and the column that would have decided it. ### Answered at length elsewhere - [Claude Code](https://entitybind.com/integrations/claude-code) (Integration): Claude Code reads MCP servers from an mcpServers object, so a URL and a bearer token are the whole configuration. Eleven tools then appear in the session. - [Claude Desktop](https://entitybind.com/integrations/claude-desktop) (Integration): Two routes, and the right one depends on who installs it: local stdio for a developer with the engine checked out, or a single-use OAuth install ticket. - [Cursor](https://entitybind.com/integrations/cursor) (Integration): Cursor takes the same mcpServers object at project or user scope, or a vault entry whose URL matches the server entry byte for byte, slash included. - [Entity resolution for AI agents](https://entitybind.com/guides/entity-resolution-for-ai-agents) (Guide): An agent about to pay or contract a counterparty needs a decision with a receipt, not a similarity score. Why abstention is the safe default for an autonomous caller, and what the MCP surface exposes. ## The other term on this shelf How a program or an agent reaches a resolver, and what a call costs. - [Tool call](https://entitybind.com/glossary/tool-call) Previous, alphabetically: [Match weight](https://entitybind.com/glossary/match-weight) · Next, alphabetically: [Normalisation](https://entitybind.com/glossary/normalisation) ## Evidence basis Internal fixtures only. The historical 2026-08-29 per-tier recording covers 317 GB companies with identifier-rich arrivals seeding the catalogue first; the context tier includes country and registered-town prose. Its legacy replay has no full-prompt-verified calls and cannot certify current calibration. The September 5 CI reports cover 1,176 labelled pairs and 705 records over 250 companies using offline stubs. These are not independent customer holdouts or live production validation; the 99% minimum-input product target remains unmet. Scope is company and organisation identity only — not people, vessels, bank-account ownership, sanctions or emissions. Results may not be used for eligibility decisions about individuals, including employment, credit and tenancy. ## Start with your own company records. Create your workspace, verify your email and run your first company file. The Free plan needs no card. Create API keys in your workspace when you need an integration. [Start free](https://app.entitybind.com/app?signup=1) · [All 64 terms](https://entitybind.com/glossary) 300 credits. No card. For a guided review of your file, explore [the Merge Safety Sprint](https://entitybind.com/audit-pack). --- Entity Bind resolves companies and organisations only. It does not resolve people, vessels, bank-account ownership, sanctions exposure, emissions or geolocation, and its results may not be used for eligibility decisions about individuals, including employment, credit and tenancy. 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