Model Context Protocol (MCP) Introduction is a practical, one-day, hands-on primer for teams that need to understand MCP. It shows how MCP connects AI applications and agents to tools, data, and services. The morning opens with why the protocol matters for agentic systems, covering clients, servers, tools, resources, prompts, and transports. It also contrasts MCP with direct API calls, plugins, RAG pipelines, and agent-to-agent communication. A first lab has attendees explore the fundamentals with a simple stdio-based client and server. The class then builds a client that discovers server capabilities, invokes tools, reads resources, and uses prompt templates. It also handles errors and unavailable servers along the way.
The afternoon flips to the server side, where participants design tool schemas, resource interfaces, and prompt definitions. They also map local files, APIs, databases, and services into working capabilities. A hands-on lab has attendees build a server that exposes both tools and resources. The day closes by wrapping REST, GraphQL, database, and SaaS APIs as safe tool interfaces, handling authentication, rate limits, and pagination. Attendees also weigh MCP against direct APIs, RAG, and workflow automation. This course is intentionally identical to Day 1 of the Model Context Protocol Foundation course. Participants can take it as a standalone introduction or continue into the full two-day foundation course.
Who Should Attend
Developers, Data Engineers, Dev/AI/Sec/Platform/Ops, IT Staff, Technical Managers and Architects
What Attendees Will Learn
Upon completing Model Context Protocol (MCP) Introduction, participants will be able to:
- Explain the purpose, architecture, and core concepts of Model Context Protocol (MCP)
- Describe MCP clients, servers, tools, resources, prompts, and transports
- Build a basic MCP client and server for an LLM or agentic workflow
- Expose external APIs and data sources through safe MCP tool interfaces
- Evaluate when MCP is useful compared with direct APIs, RAG, plugins, and workflow automation
- Prepare for the deeper Model Context Protocol Foundation course
Prerequisites
Participants should have programming skills, preferably in Python or JavaScript, and basic familiarity with LLM applications, APIs, and command-line development.