Introduction to MCP - What Is the Model Context Protocol
MCP background, Host/Client/Server roles, core features, spec revision history, and a learning roadmap for this category
MCP Protocol Basics - JSON-RPC and Stateless Design
JSON-RPC 2.0, _meta, server/discover, resultType, error codes, and versioning and compatibility
MCP 2026-07-28 Spec Changes and Migration
Major changes since 2025-11-25, deprecated features, the feature lifecycle, and migration strategy for existing servers
Transports - stdio and Streamable HTTP
stdio and Streamable HTTP specs, HTTP headers, streams, subscriptions, and horizontal scaling
Tools - Defining and Executing Tools
tools/list and tools/call, inputSchema and outputSchema, structuredContent, error handling, and annotations
Resources, Prompts, and Common Utilities
Resources, Prompts, Completion, Pagination, and Caching specs, and when to use them instead of Tools
Elicitation and Multi Round-Trip Requests
Asking the user for more input from the server, the MRTR pattern, and the deprecated Roots, Sampling, and Logging
MCP Extensions - Tasks, MCP Apps, and Skills
The extension mechanism, Tasks, MCP Apps, Skills over MCP, Server Cards, and checking client support
Building MCP Servers - SDKs with Go and C#
Official SDK tiers, the minimal server, state handles, and implementations in Go, C#, and TypeScript
Building MCP Clients and Hosts
Client responsibilities, connection management, presenting tools, consent UI, caching, retries, and managing many servers
Tool Design Patterns and Anti-patterns
Designing tools instead of wrapping APIs one-to-one, description quality, controlling output size, and safe destructive operations
MCP Authorization - OAuth 2.1 and Metadata Discovery
Protecting an MCP server as an OAuth 2.1 resource server: metadata discovery, client registration, scopes, and token validation
MCP Authorization Extensions and Enterprise Adoption
Client Credentials, Enterprise-Managed Authorization, choosing an authorization server, gateways, and auditing
MCP Security Best Practices - Attacks and Mitigations
Attacks and mitigations such as confused deputy, token passthrough, SSRF, state handle hijacking, and scope minimization
AI Agent-Specific Threats - Prompt Injection and Tool Poisoning
Indirect prompt injection, tool poisoning, rug pulls, the three conditions for data exfiltration, human confirmation, and OWASP guidance
Operating Local MCP Servers Safely
Trust boundaries of stdio servers, consent for launch commands, sandboxing, supply chain, and handling credentials
The Context Bloat Problem and Mitigations
Tool definitions and results crowding the context, the points raised in MCP is dead, and mitigations through progressive discovery, code execution, and server-side design
MCP vs CLI vs Skills - Comparison and When to Use Each
Sorting out the claims in MCP is dead, and comparing MCP, CLI, Skills, and function calling on authentication, composability, permissions, and operations
Testing and Debugging MCP
MCP Inspector, unit tests for tools, contract tests, reproducing with curl, and evaluations that include an LLM
MCP Observability and Auditing
OpenTelemetry trace propagation, alternatives to logging, header-based metrics, and audit logs
Deploying and Operating MCP Servers
Deploying as stateless HTTP, Cloudflare Workers, compatibility, gateways, and version operations
MCP Registry and Distributing Servers
Publishing to the official Registry, package types, remote servers, Server Cards, and approval and governance inside an organization