MCP in Practice — Complete Series

#mcp #ai #webdev #architecture

A practical, production-oriented guide to the Model Context Protocol — from the integration problem it solves to building your first working server.

The Series

Part 1: Why Connecting AI to Real Systems Is Still Hard
The N×M integration problem, the hidden cost of custom connectors, and why AI needs a standard protocol layer.

Part 2: What MCP Is and How AI Agents Connect
What MCP standardizes, the three capability types (tools, resources, prompts), and how it differs from REST.

Part 3: How MCP Works — The Complete Request Flow
The full protocol lifecycle — initialization, capability discovery, JSON-RPC messages, and transport layers.

Part 4: MCP vs Everything Else
A practical comparison of MCP vs APIs, plugins, function calling, and agent frameworks — when to use each.

Part 5: Build Your First MCP Server (and Client)
A guided minimal lab — one eCommerce server, one client, and a complete MCP system you can run locally.

This series is actively maintained. New parts will be linked here as they publish.