Model Context Protocol
| # | File | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | 01_mcp_fundamentals.md | the M×N problem, tools vs resources vs prompts, why not just function calling |
| 02 | 02_spec_2026_stateless.md | the 2026-07-28 revision — stateless core and what it changes operationally |
| 03 | 03_building_and_securing.md | tool design, prompt injection, confused deputy, running one in production |
The two things to have ready
Tools vs resources vs prompts is about who decides. Tools are model-controlled and may have effects; resources are application-controlled read-only context; prompts are user-triggered. Exposing everything as tools bloats the list and degrades selection.
The 2026-07-28 revision made the protocol core stateless. Transport-level sessions are gone, so an MCP server is now an ordinary HTTP service you scale horizontally behind a load balancer. If your mental model is “a stateful session over SSE”, it’s a year out of date.