---
title: Model Context Protocol (MCP) · Cloudflare Agents docs
description: You can build and deploy Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers on Cloudflare.
lastUpdated: 2025-03-20T23:42:46.000Z
source_url:
  html: https://a74404c8.preview.developers.cloudflare.com/agents/model-context-protocol/index.md
  md: https://a74404c8.preview.developers.cloudflare.com/agents/model-context-protocol/
---

You can build and deploy [Model Context Protocol (MCP)](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/) servers on Cloudflare.

## What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?

[Model Context Protocol (MCP)](https://modelcontextprotocol.io) is an open standard that connects AI systems with external applications. Think of MCP like a USB-C port for AI applications. Just as USB-C provides a standardized way to connect your devices to various accessories, MCP provides a standardized way to connect AI agents to different services.

### MCP Terminology

* **MCP Hosts**: AI assistants (like [Claude](http://claude.ai) or [Cursor](http://cursor.com)), AI agents, or applications that need to access external capabilities.
* **MCP Clients**: Clients embedded within the MCP hosts that connect to MCP servers and invoke tools. Each MCP client instance has a single connection to an MCP server.
* **MCP Servers**: Applications that expose [tools](https://developers.cloudflare.com/agents/model-context-protocol/tools/), [prompts](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/concepts/prompts), and [resources](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/concepts/resources) that MCP clients can use.

### Remote vs. local MCP connections

The MCP standard supports two modes of operation:

* **Remote MCP connections**: MCP clients connect to MCP servers over the Internet, establishing a [long-lived connection using HTTP and Server-Sent Events (SSE)](https://developers.cloudflare.com/agents/model-context-protocol/transport/), and authorizing the MCP client access to resources on the user's account using [OAuth](https://developers.cloudflare.com/agents/model-context-protocol/authorization/).
* **Local MCP connections**: MCP clients connect to MCP servers on the same machine, using [stdio](https://spec.modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/draft/basic/transports/#stdio) as a local transport method.

### Get Started

Go to the [Getting Started](https://developers.cloudflare.com/agents/guides/remote-mcp-server/) guide to learn how to build and deploy your first remote MCP server to Cloudflare.
