Model Context Protocol
An open standard, released by Anthropic on November 25, 2024, that defines a client-server architecture for connecting AI applications to external data sources, tools, and prompts over JSON-RPC 2.0. IBM's IBM i MCP Server is an implementation of it for Db2 for i and other IBM i resources.
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that Anthropic released on November 25, 2024, for connecting AI applications to external data sources, tools, and prompts. It defines a client-server architecture: an MCP host, such as Claude Desktop or an IDE, runs an MCP client that talks to one or more MCP servers over JSON-RPC 2.0, each server exposing one system's data or actions through a common interface, so a developer writes one connector instead of a custom integration per data source. OpenAI added MCP support across its Agents SDK, Responses API, and ChatGPT desktop in March 2025, and the protocol has since become a de facto standard for agent-to-tool connectivity. On IBM i, the protocol itself is generic; IBM's contribution is the IBM i MCP Server, which exposes Db2 for i and other IBM i resources to any MCP-compatible client, and IBM Bob's tool calling relies on the same protocol.
Related Terms
IBM i MCP Server
An open-source, IBM-published server implementing the Model Context Protocol (MCP), letting AI agents and LLMs query Db2 for i data and take defined actions on IBM i using natural language. In beta since October 2025.
Mapepire
An open-source database access layer for Db2 for i, created by IBM and introduced in an August 2024 IBM blog post as a lighter, cloud-friendly alternative to ODBC and JDBC. A server daemon runs on IBM i and Node.js, Python, Java, and .NET Core clients connect to it over Secure WebSockets.
Large Language Model (LLM)
A machine learning model trained on large volumes of text, used as the underlying technology behind generative AI tools including IBM Bob and general-purpose assistants like ChatGPT and Claude.