Smart AI integration with the Model Context Protocol (MCP)

4 July 2025

Also published on Microsoft Blogs

Introduction

A discussion on Model Context Protocol (MCP) - topics covered include:

• Why is there a need for MCP

• What MCP is, including its architecture and core components

• A demo of MCP — including how to configure it so anyone can run it

• An example of how to develop an MCP server — a potential starter project for connecting to your own knowledge resources

• Extending the MCP Server code to support authentication / authorisation