AI Tool Integration Just Got Standardized — MCP Downloads Cross 97 Million in March 2026
Anthropic open-sourced MCP on Nov. 25, 2024, alongside reference servers for Google Drive, Slack, Github, and Postgres, with native support built into Claude Desktop. Early adopters included Block and Apollo; IDEs such as Zed, Replit, Codeium, and Sourcegraph began integration within weeks.
The protocol defines how AI models connect to external tools, databases, APIs, and workflows. An MCP host, such as Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, or VS Code Copilot, communicates with an MCP server, a lightweight wrapper around a specific tool or data source. One server can serve every compatible client without per-model custom code.
