Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a framework maintained by Model Context Protocol a Series of LF Projects, LLC (Agentic AI Foundation project)61513. Its source code is public14 under the Apache License 2.02 and the MIT License2.
The Model Context Protocol is an open protocol for connecting AI applications to external data sources, tools, and workflows through MCP servers and clients. The project publishes the specification, a TypeScript schema with a generated JSON Schema, documentation, and official SDKs in ten programming languages. Anthropic introduced it in November 2024 and donated it to the Agentic AI Foundation in December 2025.3141112
- Documentation: Website and documentation (external site: modelcontextprotocol.io)
- Repository: Specification repository (external site: github.com)
- Documentation: Official SDKs (external site: modelcontextprotocol.io)
- Documentation: Governance (external site: modelcontextprotocol.io)
- License: LICENSE (specification repository) (external site: github.com)
- Release notes: Protocol versioning and current revision (external site: modelcontextprotocol.io)
Availability and license
Overall availability
The specification, schema, documentation, and SDK source code are public. Connecting to a particular MCP server or AI application is governed by that server's or application's own terms.143
Availability is separate from permission: read the license before using or redistributing.
Apache License 2.0 (external site: raw.githubusercontent.com)2
Plain-language guide to the Apache License 2.0MIT License (external site: raw.githubusercontent.com)2
Plain-language guide to the MIT LicenseCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (external site: raw.githubusercontent.com)2
Plain-language guide to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
The specification repository's LICENSE describes a transition from MIT to Apache 2.0: new code and specification contributions are under Apache 2.0, contributions whose authors have not consented to relicensing remain under MIT, and documentation other than the specification is under CC BY 4.0. That repository's README still states MIT. SDK repositories carry their own LICENSE files: the TypeScript SDK uses the same transition text, while the Python and Java SDK LICENSE files reviewed are MIT only. None of these licenses cover external MCP servers, model weights, or hosted services.218910
Component reuse rights
- weights
- Unknown — no complete fact-level rights review
- code
- Terms or license combinations require review
- data
- Unknown — no complete fact-level rights review
- documentation
- Reviewed qualifying license recorded — check scope and conditions
No complete system-rights review is recorded for this release.
Public materials checklist
| Item | Status | Notes and evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Source codeIs the source code publicly readable? | Public | The specification, schema, and documentation are developed in a public repository; each official SDK has its own public repository.14 |
| DocumentationIs user documentation published? | Public | Public documentation site with the specification, architecture and security guidance, and guides for building servers and clients.35 |
| InstallationAre installation instructions or packages publicly available? | Public | Each SDK documents its own installation. For example, the Python SDK documents installing the mcp package with pip or uv and requires Python 3.10 or later.47 |
| Supported platformsAre supported operating systems or hardware documented? | Public | Official SDKs are listed for TypeScript, Python, C#, Go, Rust, and Ruby (Tier 1), Java (Tier 2), and Swift, PHP, and Kotlin (Tier 3); tiers reflect feature completeness, protocol support, and maintenance commitment.4 |
| Release statusAre versioned releases published? | Public | Protocol versions are dated identifiers marking the last backwards-incompatible change; the current version is 2026-07-28. This entry describes the project rather than one revision or SDK release.5 |
What it is useful for
Organization context
Provenance and derivatives
Anthropic introduced and open-sourced MCP on November 25, 2024. On December 9, 2025, Anthropic donated it to the newly formed Agentic AI Foundation under The Linux Foundation; the project's announcement said its maintainer-led governance and enhancement-proposal process would continue unchanged.11121314
Catalog records that name this entry in their provenance:
In the news
GitHub MCP Server 2.0.0 adds structured outputs and output schemas for newer MCP clients
GitHub published version 2.0.0 of the GitHub MCP Server on October 6, 2026. The release notes say it adds support for structured outputs and output schemas to help agents that use Code Mode or programmatic tool calling, and that these schemas are advertised only to clients that declare support for the MCP 2026-07-28 specification or later. According to the notes, the server's compound tools needed changes to their allowed output schemas, so those schemas are not returned to older clients. The listed changes add typed outputs, and for some tools typed inputs, across issue, pull request, repository, search, security alert, and Actions tools. USASI has not tested this release.
Agent Plugins 1.0.0 published as an open specification for packaging agent skills and MCP servers
On August 6, 2026 Vercel announced Agent Plugins 1.0.0, an open, vendor-neutral specification for packaging extensions for AI agents so that one plugin format works across compatible clients. A plugin is a directory with a plugin.json manifest and fixed locations for its components, with Agent Skills under skills/ and MCP server configuration in mcp.json. Vercel says it initiated the proposal, that representatives from AWS, Anysphere, GitHub, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Vercel refined it into version 1.0.0, and that the initial Technical Steering Committee includes core maintainers from AWS, Cursor, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Vercel. ChatGPT and Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Kiro, and VS Code are listed as supported at launch.
Model Context Protocol publishes its 2026-07-28 specification, removing protocol-level sessions
On July 28, 2026 the Model Context Protocol project published the stable release of the
2026-07-28revision of the MCP specification, which follows the2025-11-25revision. The changelog lists removing protocol-level sessions and theMcp-Session-Idheader from the Streamable HTTP transport, and removing theinitializehandshake so that every request carries its protocol version and client capabilities in_meta. It also adds a requiredserver/discovermethod and a Multi Round-Trip Requests pattern, and moves tasks into an officialio.modelcontextprotocol/tasksextension. The revision deprecates the Roots, Sampling, and Logging features and adopts a feature lifecycle and deprecation policy with a minimum twelve-month deprecation window. USASI has not tested implementations of this revision.
U.S. eligibility
Eligible · basis: U.S.-governed project
MCP has been established as Model Context Protocol a Series of LF Projects, LLC, and its governance changes must also be approved by LF Projects, a Delaware series limited liability company. It is a project of the Agentic AI Foundation, a directed fund of The Linux Foundation, which describes itself as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit with a legal postal address in San Francisco, California. Technical governance rests with individual maintainers; seats are not reserved for companies. Eligibility rests on this documented governance, not on the original developer or on contributors' affiliations or nationality.61716151819
Sources
This listing is not an endorsement, a safety assessment, or a federal approval.
Share or cite this page
- X (opens X)
- Bluesky (opens Bluesky)
- LinkedIn (opens LinkedIn)
- Reddit (opens Reddit)
- Hacker News (opens Hacker News)
- Email (opens your email app)
- RSS updates
Cite this page
APA style
USASI. (2026, October 1). Model Context Protocol (MCP). United States of America Superintelligence. https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/open/model-context-protocol/
BibTeX
@misc{usasi_model_context_protocol,
author = {{USASI}},
title = {Model Context Protocol (MCP)},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
howpublished = {\url{https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/open/model-context-protocol/}},
note = {United States of America Superintelligence. Last updated 2026-10-01}
}The date is when this page was last updated. Add the date you read it if your style needs one.
For maintainers: a “Listed in USASI” badge
Links to this page. It says the entry is listed, not endorsed or rated. About the badge
Markdown (for a README)
[](https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/open/model-context-protocol/)
HTML
<a href="https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/open/model-context-protocol/"><img src="https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/badges/listed.svg" alt="Listed in the USASI catalog" height="20"></a>