---
title: "Extend Agents with Model Context Protocol (MCP)"
---

Model Context Protocol (MCP) provides a standardized way for Airia Agents to discover and use tools hosted on external servers, enabling powerful extensions to your agent capabilities.

## What is Model Context Protocol (MCP)?

MCP allows Airia Agents to seamlessly integrate with and utilize tools hosted on external servers. This protocol provides a standardized framework for tool discovery and execution, allowing your agents to interact with a wide range of external services and data.

## MCP Server Architectures

Airia currently supports two main architectures for connecting to MCP servers:

### Custom / Self-Hosted MCP Servers (SSE/Streamable HTTP)

You can integrate your own remote servers that expose tools via Server-Sent Events (SSE) or Streamable HTTP. This allows Airia Agents to connect directly to your external tool infrastructure.

- **Benefits:** Tools are maintained by your server, and any changes or modifications are automatically received by your Agent, ensuring your agents always use the latest tool definitions.

MCP Servers are supported with Client to Server Authentication. You can provide either an unauthenticated URL or pass in custom headers or API Keys to connect to the server.

<Note>
  For detailed instructions on how to add and manage these external servers, refer to the [Custom MCP Servers Setup guide](https://explore.airia.com/integrations/Tools/add-a-mcp-server).
</Note>

### Secure, Airia-Hosted MCP Servers

Airia provides a curated list of secure, pre-configured MCP Servers that you can add directly to your project by providing the necessary authentication tokens.

- **Enhanced Security:** These servers operate within ephemeral sandboxes. They are spun up for each request and run in isolated containers. Airia securely stores and handles your credentials, passing them to the MCP server only at the time of execution. This ephemeral nature ensures no data or authentication tokens are permanently stored on the MCP server itself.
- **Version Stability:** Airia supports version pinning for hosted MCP servers, ensuring your agents consistently utilize stable and tested tool versions without unexpected changes.

## Get Started with MCP Servers

To begin using MCP Servers in your projects:

1. Navigate to the **Tools** library in your Airia dashboard.
2. Find the list of **Airia-whitelisted MCP Servers** to add pre-configured options.
3. Alternatively, add a **remote server** by creating a new custom tool entry if you are hosting your own MCP.