Server Features
Overview
Protocol Revision: 2025-03-26
Servers provide the fundamental building blocks for adding context to language models via MCP. These primitives enable rich interactions between clients, servers, and language models:
- Prompts: Pre-defined templates or instructions that guide language model interactions
- Resources: Structured data or content that provides additional context to the model
- Tools: Executable functions that allow models to perform actions or retrieve information
Each primitive can be summarized in the following control hierarchy:
| Primitive | Control | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prompts | User-controlled | Interactive templates invoked by user choice | Slash commands, menu options |
| Resources | Application-controlled | Contextual data attached and managed by the client | File contents, git history |
| Tools | Model-controlled | Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions | API POST requests, file writing |
Explore these key primitives in more detail below: