---
title: "What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)? | AdBuyMCP"
description: "An open protocol letting AI assistants call external tools and data through a standard interface, so a model can operate software as well as describe it."
url: "https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/mcp"
---

[Home](https://adbuymcp.com/) / [Glossary](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary) / Model Context Protocol (MCP)

AdBuyMCP's own vocabulary

# What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?

An open protocol letting AI assistants call external tools and data through a standard interface, so a model can operate software as well as describe it. The capabilities come from the tools on the other end.

Also called MCP MCP server

[Get my plan and price](https://adbuymcp.com/start) [Book a 30-minute call with the founder](https://adbuymcp.com/contact#book)

Free, with no card. We read your homepage, draft who buys from you and show your monthly price before you join the waitlist. Nothing is bought until you've approved the plan and the ads.

What it means here

## Here is what the term means for a UK buyer

The definition above holds anywhere. Buying media in the UK adds the detail below, including where AdBuyMCP does something different.

We are named after it, and the name is no moat: Amazon and other advertising platforms already expose MCP capabilities, and an MCP server alone differentiates nothing. What is unusual here is that the agent transport and the browser exercise the same REST routes, the same tenant boundary, the same spending checks and the same approval records, so there is no second execution path with weaker rules. The stronger guarantee is what is absent: no agent tool exists for 11 consequential operations, including approval resolution, mandate revocation and issuing a spend grant. An agent can prepare and propose a plan, and a named person has to approve any spend. AdBuyMCP runs the hosted server. Joining the waitlist takes a short form and no card. James is setting the first customers up himself, so he reads every entry and comes back to you, and nothing is bought until the plan, the ads and the start date are confirmed with you. A compatible MCP client connects through Supabase OAuth, workspace selection and consent once workspace access, the client's own identity and its exact callbacks are approved. Its tools follow that workspace's enabled capabilities. There is no public connector or registry listing.

Read next

- [The 105 agent tools and the 11 human-only operations Goes deeper](https://adbuymcp.com/mcp)
- [The four channels in an awareness plan Channels](https://adbuymcp.com/channels)
- [What UK awareness advertising costs Cost](https://adbuymcp.com/cost)
- [What a fidelity score measures Guide](https://adbuymcp.com/guides/what-a-fidelity-score-is)

Type your company website or work email to see who we think buys from you and what reaching them 3, 5 or 12 times a week would cost.

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Free, with no card.

Related terms

## These terms sit next to this one

Most confusion in media buying comes from two adjacent terms being used interchangeably, so these are the neighbours worth reading next.

- ### [Evidence ledger](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/evidence-ledger)
  A six-level grading of how far each supplier integration has been proved, from sandbox only up to report verified. The levels are sandbox only, stub, client built, contract tested, spend tested and report verified, and each is set by what a vendor has done: the presence of code or credentials counts for nothing on its own.
- ### [Persona compiler](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/persona-compiler)
  The deterministic stage that turns one described audience into the native targeting specification each channel accepts, with a fidelity score and a lawful-basis manifest. Depending on the channel, that specification is segment identifiers, attribute combinations, show allowlists, venue packs or keyword seeds.

Same group

## These terms are also in AdBuyMCP's own vocabulary

These are the terms AdBuyMCP either coined or uses more strictly than the category does.

- [Fidelity score](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/fidelity-score)
- [Lawful-basis manifest](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/lawful-basis-manifest)
- [Exposure ledger](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary/exposure-ledger)

[All 81 terms](https://adbuymcp.com/glossary)