This course, provided by Microsoft, is based on a Github repository full of invaluable information that introduces MCP, Model Context Protocol, to beginners.

As a refresher, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol developed by Anthropic that enables seamless integration with LLMs and AI tools from a variety of programming languages.

As a MCP consumer/end user you are only concerned with what you can achieve through it; for instance in "MCP For Debugging And Reverse Engineering" we saw how to control Ghidra just with plain English, while in "Three Tools To Run MCP On Your Github Repositories" we saw how to interact with any Githb repo, again in natural language.

This as an end user. However as a developer you'll want to offer a MCP interface to the world, thus you'll have to know the intrinsics as well as how to build the components of MCP, clients and servers. The protocol standardizes the interaction between clients and servers so that your applications can work with any server that supports the protocol in plug and play fashion.

Thus if you're looking at MCP from the perspective of a developer and want to start off from somewhere, you are in the right place. "MCP For Beginners" is designed to teach the concepts and fundamentals of the Model Context Protocol with practical examples in .NET, Java, TypeScript, JavaScript and Python.

It's yet another solid educational release by Microsoft, after the likes of "RAG Time", "AI Agents for Beginners" and "Generative AI for Beginners".

It is comprised of three chapters, with the very first "Foundations" covering the following subjects:

00. Introduction to MCP
   Overview of the Model Context Protocol and its 
   significance in AI pipelines. 

01. Core Concepts Explained
   In-depth exploration of core MCP concepts. 

02. Security in MCP
   Security threats and best practices. 

03. Getting Started with MCP
  Environment setup, basic servers/clients, integration. 

This is followed by hands-on labs that go through creating your first Clients and Servers and subsequently getting into advanced concepts like MCP Integration with Azure, Multi modality, Root Contexts, Web Search MCP, and wrapping it up with the best community practices.

The sample project you'll work on is a MCP calculator app, which will be delivered in different programming languages; C#, Java, Javascript, Python and Typescript.

To conclude "MCP for Beginners" is, again, an excellent resource by Microsoft that dives into the world of MCP. Embrace the journey.

More Information

 MCP for Beginners

Related Articles

Microsoft's RAG Time

Three Tools To Run MCP On Your Github Repositories

MCP For Debugging And Reverse Engineering

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