Explainers

MCP servers, explained in five minutes

aaaa.fyi · 2026-07-12 · 6 min read

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a standard for giving AI agents tools. An MCP server exposes a set of typed actions, click a browser, run SQL, open a pull request, and any MCP-compatible agent can use them.

The mental model

Think of your agent as a very fast intern with no hands. An MCP server is a pair of hands for one domain:

playwright-mcp: a real browser, driven through accessibility snapshots

github-mcp-server: repos, issues, PRs and Actions

supabase-mcp: your Postgres, migrations and logs

Why a protocol matters

Before MCP, every agent integrated every tool separately. Now a server written once works in Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and anything else that speaks the protocol. That is why the registry is growing so fast — and why the ecosystem you invest in is portable.

What to install first

Real monthly npm installs are public, and they tell a clear story: browser automation and docs-injection servers dominate. Our MCP page ranks every server by those live numbers, no editorial guessing.