It seems that MCP is entirely oriented around how to get an application on a user’s device to talk to external tools. If we’re running an LLM on the server as part of a SaaS product, would MCP have any relevance to us?

If you're running a service or product that uses LLMs (chatbots, agents) as part of your infrastructure, you can use MCP servers to enable additional functionality for your system.

Using an MCP server is an alternative to using the 3rd party API directly to integrate their functionality. It's similar to using the SDK from the 3rd party, but more directly compatible with the LLM - you don't have to write an integration layer between the SDK/API and your LLM.

What you need to do

You'll need to implement the Client side of the MCP protocol, as defined by the spec:

• Base protocol
• Client Features

Get a headstart

There are several projects to help get a working Client implementation up and running:

• mcp-agent
• mcp-client-cli
• open-mcp-client
• mcp-engine