By skyforbes 
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The world of AI assistants is evolving fast, and a quiet revolution is happening right on your desktop. Both ChatGPT and Claude now support adding connectors powered by the Model Context Protocol (MCP), letting users link their favorite AI directly to custom tools, APIs, or even secure on-prem systems.
This isn’t just a new feature. It’s a major step toward a more open, extensible AI ecosystem, one where your assistant can understand, interact with, and act upon the systems that matter most to you.
What Are MCP Servers?
At its core, MCP (Model Context Protocol) defines a simple, standard way for AI models to connect with external services. An MCP server is any application that exposes a set of tools or data sources the model can call, securely and with full control.
Think of it as a translator between your AI and your world:
- The model sends structured requests (“run this query,” “fetch this record,” “generate this report”).
- The MCP server executes them using your own APIs, databases, or apps.
- Results flow back into the conversation, so the model can reason about them naturally.
For developers, OpenAI’s Apps SDK makes it straightforward to define these servers in Python, TypeScript, or other languages.
