Why the Model Context Protocol Won

I was skeptical when Anthropic launched the Model Context Protocol (MCP) in November 2024 as the universal standard for AI-to-tool integrations. It seemed utopian to imagine that this limited and rough standard could accomplish a convergence in the AI ecosystem.

Yet over the last year, MCP accomplished a rapid rise to popularity that few other standards or technologies had achieved so quickly.

This is one perspective on MCP’s unlikely rise to become a generally accepted standard for AI connectivity.

November 2024: The Unremarkable Launch

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