Model Context Protocol
MCP Client
The component that connects your AI application to MCP servers.
In the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the client is the piece inside an AI application that opens and manages a connection to an MCP server — negotiating the protocol, discovering the server's tools, resources and prompts, and invoking them on the model's behalf.
Talk to Ethisys about MCP →What is an MCP client?
MCP — the Model Context Protocol — is an open standard for connecting AI models to external tools and data. An MCP host (the AI application: a chat assistant, IDE or agent) runs one or more MCP clients, and each client maintains a connection to a single MCP server.
The client handles the initialisation handshake and capability negotiation, then exposes the server's capabilities to the host so the model can use them — calling tools, reading resources and using prompt templates.
What an MCP client does
- Establishes and maintains a connection to an MCP server
- Negotiates protocol version and capabilities on initialisation
- Discovers available tools, resources and prompts
- Invokes tools and returns results to the host and model
- Handles notifications, cancellation and errors
- Manages credentials and user consent for server access
MCP client vs host vs server
These are easily conflated. The host is the AI application and can run several clients; each client connects to exactly one server; the server exposes capabilities. So “MCP client” means specifically the connection-managing component — not the whole app, and not the server.
How Ethisys builds MCP clients
Ethisys designs and builds production MCP integrations — including custom MCP clients embedded in agents and enterprise applications, with the security, consent and observability real systems need. Our platform work is MCP-first, so this is core to how we build AI.
Frequently asked questions
What is an MCP client?
The component inside an AI application (the host) that connects to an MCP server and lets the model discover and use that server's tools, resources and prompts.
Is an MCP client the same as the AI app?
No — the AI application is the “host”. A host can run multiple MCP clients, each connected to a different MCP server.
How does an MCP client connect to a server?
Over a transport such as stdio (local processes) or HTTP (streamable HTTP / SSE), after a capability-negotiation handshake.
Can I build a custom MCP client?
Yes — MCP has open SDKs. Ethisys builds custom MCP clients into agents and enterprise applications.
Related
Building MCP into production?
Ethisys is an AI agency that designs and builds MCP clients, gateways and middleware for real systems. Our own platform is MCP-first.
Talk to Ethisys → AI agent development →