AI agent glossary
MCP resources
Read-only data an MCP server exposes, such as files, records, or documents, each identified by a URI and supplied to the model as context.
An MCP server can offer three main kinds of things: tools, which the model calls to take actions; prompts, which are reusable templates a user can pick; and resources, which are pieces of data the client can read.
Each resource has a URI and content, such as text or binary data. The client application decides which resources to include in context, often by letting the user attach them, whereas tools are invoked by the model itself.
Resources suit content an agent should read rather than act on: a database schema, a project's documentation, or a log file. Client support for resources varies more than support for tools, so many server authors also expose important data through a read tool.
A documentation server exposes each help article as a resource. In a chat client, you attach the article on refund policy so the model can answer questions using it.
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