Overview

specification/2026-07-28/server/index First recorded · 29 lines, first recorded

# Overview

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# Overview

Servers provide the fundamental building blocks for adding context to language models via
MCP. These primitives enable rich interactions between clients, servers, and language
models:

* **Prompts**: Pre-defined templates or instructions that guide language model
  interactions
* **Resources**: Structured data or content that provides additional context to the model
* **Tools**: Executable functions that allow models to perform actions or retrieve
  information

Each primitive can be summarized in the following control hierarchy:

| Primitive | Control                | Description                                        | Example                         |
| --------- | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- |
| Prompts   | User-controlled        | Interactive templates invoked by user choice       | Slash commands, menu options    |
| Resources | Application-controlled | Contextual data attached and managed by the client | File contents, git history      |
| Tools     | Model-controlled       | Functions exposed to the LLM to take actions       | API POST requests, file writing |

Explore these key primitives in more detail below:

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Prompts" icon="message" href="/specification/2026-07-28/server/prompts" />

  <Card title="Resources" icon="file-lines" href="/specification/2026-07-28/server/resources" />

  <Card title="Tools" icon="wrench" href="/specification/2026-07-28/server/tools" />
</CardGroup>