Model Mondays S2E02 - AMA on Model Context Protocol

#beginners #azureaifoundry #ama #modelmondays

Model Mondays is a weekly series that helps you come up to speed with the fast-moving world of AI models. Here are 3 actions you can take to build your model IQ:

Watch Model Mondays Live - for news roundup & tech spotlights in 30 mins
Join Foundry Friday AMA - for discussions with Q&A featuring AI experts
Subscribe Model Mondays Newsletter - a weekly pulse on AI innovation & tech

Spotlight On: Model Context Protocol

We put the spotlight on Model Context Protocol (MCP) with a deep-dive from Den Delimarsky, a member of the MCP Steering Committee.

👉🏽👉🏽 Register for the AMA on our Azure AI Foundry Discord
👉🏽👉🏽 Post Your Questions on our Discussion Forum

Then check out the slides from the presentation, for resource links!

About Model Context Protocol (MCP)

MCP is a protocol that standardizes how AI applications connect the underlying AI models to required knowledge sources (data) and interaction APIs (functions) for more effective task execution. Because these models are pre-trained, they lack access to real-time or proprietary data sources (for knowledge) and real-world environments (for interaction). MCP allows them to "discover and use" relevant knowledge and action tools to add relevant context to the model for task execution.

Explore: The MCP Specification
Learn: MCP For Beginners
Watch: Anthropic Workshop on MCP (below), AI Engineer Summit NY 2025

Securing MCP

As MCP started gaining traction, the conversation turned to the topic of secure MCP usage, particularly in enterprise environments. How should MCP clients authenticate with MCP servers, and get authorization for access to the right resources? In early 2025, the conversation began on an MCP Authorization spec - here are the three documents that help you understand the issues & proposal process.

Aaron Parecki, Let's Fix OAuth in MCP
Den Delimarsky, Improving The MCP Authorization Spec - One RFC At A Time
MCP Specification, Authorization protocol draft

On Monday, Den joined us live to talk about the work he did for the authorization protocol. Watch the session now to get a sense for what the MCP Authorization protocol does, how it works, and why it matters. Have questions? Submit them to the forum or Jon the Foundry Friday AMA on Jun 27 at 1:30pm ET.

Learning MCP

Want to get hands-on experience with MCP from fundamentals to best practices? Explore the "MCP For Beginners" curriculum - a 10-lesson open-source curriculum that is constantly being updated to reflect the latest progress and examples of MCP in action. Go from fundamental concepts to best practices, with hands-on exercises.

👉🏽👉🏽 Explore the Curriculum on GitHub

Read The Recap

Missed the livestream and want a learner perspective on what was coverd? Check out "This Week in Model Mondays" - a weekly recap published by Sharda Kaur (Microsoft MLSA Gold Ambassador) on the Microsoft Tech Community Educator Blog

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