Before you connect another MCP server: an audit checklist for workplace teams
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) revision dated July 28 remains the current one. MCP's versioning rules let a current revision keep receiving backwards-compatible changes without a new version number, so the specification is not frozen, but there has been no further breaking revision since July. I think that is the right moment for workplace teams to take stock. The July revision changed how an…
Before connecting a new MCP server, workplace teams should conduct a thorough audit using this checklist. MCP, or Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that enables AI assistants to connect to various data sources like document repositories, business applications, and development tools. It was introduced by Anthropic in November 2024 and adopted by numerous products, including ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Visual Studio Code.
Key components of MCP include hosts (AI applications), servers (programs that expose system capabilities), and tools (actions the model can call). Servers offer three types of building blocks: tools, resources (data that applications can read), and prompts (reusable templates that people can run).
When a host connects to an MCP server, it creates an MCP client for each server it interacts with. Servers can define tools, resources, and prompts. Tools are model-controlled, resources are application-controlled, and prompts are user-controlled. Communication between clients and servers occurs via JSON-RPC 2.0 messages, using either local (stdio) or remote (Streamable HTTP) transports.
To ensure proper integration, teams should consider the following seven questions before connecting a new MCP server:
1. What is the purpose of the new server, and how will it fit into the existing workflow?
2. Does the server support the required protocol version?
3. What tools and resources does the server offer, and how will they be utilized within the team's processes?
4. Are there any security considerations, such as OAuth authentication, that need to be addressed?
5. How will the team handle potential failures or errors during tool calls?
6. What is the expected usage and load on the server, and has it been properly configured to handle it?
7. Have all stakeholders reviewed and approved the integration, ensuring a human is always in control of tool invocations?
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
