MCP explained: the plug standard behind many integrations

What this is

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open standard for connecting AI applications to external systems: data sources such as files and databases, tools such as search, and packaged workflows. Its own documentation compares it to a USB-C port: one standard plug so that a tool built once can be used by many AI applications.

The pieces have plain names once you know them. An MCP server is a small program a vendor or your own team runs that exposes a tool's actions in the standard way. An MCP client is the AI application that plugs into it. In Korps, a worker's runtime is the client.

Who it helps

Anyone evaluating a tool that advertises "MCP support" and wondering what that buys them, and anyone whose own software team could expose an internal system to workers.

Why it matters to a business

Before a standard, every AI product had to build every integration itself, and the long tail of tools never got one. With MCP, the vendor of a tool can publish one server and any compliant AI application can use it. For you, that means a wider set of tools a worker can reach, and a way to connect your own systems without waiting for Korps to add them.

How Korps uses it

• MCP is one of the three routes to an application in Korps, beside a direct Korps connection and Composio. See integrations.
• A connection through Composio can also be mounted as an MCP endpoint that a worker's runtime uses directly.
• Access to an MCP connection is granted per worker like any other tool, including "requires approval", and every call is written to Activity naming the system.
• Any bearer credential an MCP server needs is sealed in Korps's vault and never handed to a client.

What it does not guarantee

• MCP is a plug, not a promise. A vendor's MCP server exposes whatever actions the vendor chose to expose, at whatever quality. "Has an MCP server" tells you a route may exist; it does not tell you the integration does what your workflow needs.
• Security is the server's and yours. An MCP server runs somewhere and has access to something. Treat one from an unknown source like software you are installing, because it is.
• A Korps integration is a Korps connection or a route Korps has been pointed at. A tool having an MCP server somewhere on the internet is not a Korps integration until it is connected in your organisation.

Requirements and availability

• Available in Korps: MCP as a connection route, per-worker grants with approval, vault-sealed credentials, Activity.
• Someone has to run the MCP server: the vendor, a hosted provider, or your team. Korps does not host third-party MCP servers for you.
• The free account is open now; the app that hosts workers opens at launch.

Limitations and approval points

• Grant a new MCP connection to one worker with "requires approval" first. Read what it tries to do before you widen access.
• MCP servers vary in maturity. A test assignment on a low-stakes task tells you more than the vendor's page.
• As with every integration, a worker can see only what the connected account can see.