What exactly is MCP and why should I care?+
Model Context Protocol is an open standard Anthropic published in 2024 so LLM assistants (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.) can connect to external tools and data in a uniform way. Before MCP, every integration was custom and every client implemented it its own way. With MCP, a well-built integration works in any compatible client. You should care because it means you can build the connection to your Holded (or your CRM, or your docs) ONCE and your whole team uses it from their preferred tool, Claude Desktop today, Cursor tomorrow, the next assistants after that.
How is this different from a chatbot or an AI agent?+
Different levels. A chatbot/agent is an APPLICATION, it handles messages, does things, replies. An MCP server is INFRASTRUCTURE, it exposes capabilities from your systems that any LLM assistant can use. Chatbots often NEED MCPs underneath to access real data (without an MCP, the chatbot makes things up or asks the user to copy/paste). In practice, MCP is the right layer to integrate LLMs with YOUR stack. If you already have a chatbot, building MCPs underneath makes it far more useful.
How much does it cost and what's included in the price?+
The standard scope covers an MCP server with 5-10 tools/resources, local deployment (stdio for Claude Desktop / Cursor) and documentation. If you need remote deployment on infra (SSE on VPS/AWS/GCP), or connection to multiple systems requiring complex orchestration, we quote it custom. Optional monthly maintenance when your underlying APIs change, cost depends on the expected volume of change. A concrete figure after 30 min of discovery based on your case.
Does it work only with Claude or also with ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.?+
MCP is from Anthropic but the spec is open. As of today (mid-2026) the clients that support it natively are those in the Anthropic ecosystem + dev tools (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Zed, Continue, Goose). ChatGPT and Gemini have their own plugin/tool systems that are NOT MCP. If you need the same backend working across multiple LLMs, we can design the core logic and expose it as an MCP server + specific adapters for other systems (higher ticket, evaluated case by case).
Is it secure? Does my data pass through external servers?+
Not by default. The MCP server runs on YOUR infra (or locally on team machines in stdio mode). When the user queries from Claude Desktop, the flow is: local client → local MCP → your API → local MCP → local client → Claude's API to process the response. Your data goes to Anthropic ONLY if the LLM client includes it in the prompt to reason over it, but it is NOT stored at Anthropic for training (the consumer API has that policy). For highly sensitive cases (healthcare, legal, financial), we evaluate deployment with an on-premise LLM (Llama 3 / Qwen / etc.) instead of Claude, the MCP server is the same, only the client changes.
What if Anthropic stops supporting MCP or the standard evolves?+
MCP is an open spec, not a closed product. Even if Anthropic stopped pushing it tomorrow, the code we write is standard TypeScript with an open source SDK. If the standard evolves (version 2.0 with changes), the cost of updating is proportional to the change. But MCP in its current form already has real momentum: Cursor, Zed, Continue and Goose support it, and it's growing, I don't see a realistic scenario where it disappears within 18 months. At 5 years, up for review.
Do you do it if our system does NOT have an API?+
It depends on how it's accessed. If your system is web-based (HTML interface) we can scrape it but it's fragile, we don't recommend it for production. If it's a legacy desktop app with nothing exposed, there you first need to build an API layer (a separate project). If what you have is a direct database, then yes, an MCP server against Postgres/MySQL is perfectly viable and very useful.