MCP client
An MCP client is the AI application that connects to MCP servers, lists their tools and decides when to call them.
What it means
The client is the application the person uses, such as Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor or another assistant. It holds the connection settings, starts or reaches each server, and passes the tool list to the language model. When the model decides a tool is needed, the client sends the call and returns the result to the conversation.
Clients differ in how they store server settings, whether they support remote servers and how they handle OAuth. When a server fails to appear, the problem is often in the client configuration rather than the server itself. Check the client's MCP panel or its command output first. Some clients let you approve each tool call by hand, which is useful when you are testing a new server for the first time and want to see every request it makes.
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Cite this entry
https://searchmcpserver.com/glossary/mcp-client/