Track 13: Model Context Protocol (MCP)

The open protocol that standardizes how an LLM application connects to external tools and data. Instead of every app writing bespoke integrations, an MCP server exposes tools/resources/prompts once and any MCP-compatible client can use them. This track goes down to the wire protocol, then back up through building a real server and client, with a full module on the trust boundaries MCP introduces.

Modules

  1. What MCP Is and Why It Exists
  2. The M×N Integration Problem
  3. MCP vs. Function Calling vs. Plugins
  4. Architecture: Hosts, Clients and Servers
  5. The Protocol: JSON-RPC Foundations
  6. Transports: stdio
  7. Transports: Streamable HTTP and SSE
  8. The Initialization Handshake
  9. Primitive: Tools
  10. Primitive: Resources
  11. Primitive: Prompts
  12. Sampling and Roots
  13. Building Your First MCP Server (Python SDK)
  14. Building an MCP Client
  15. Testing and Debugging MCP Servers
  16. Security and Trust Boundaries
  17. The MCP Ecosystem
  18. Capstone Project