MCP vs ADK: How Modern AI Agents Connect and Work Together
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent Development Kit (ADK) are complementary tools for AI agents, with MCP focusing on external connectivity and ADK on agent orchestration and development.
MAIN POINTS FROM TRANSCRIPT
- MCP, created by Anthropic, standardizes LLM connectivity to APIs, databases, and files.
- ADK, from Google, provides a framework for building and orchestrating multiple AI agents.
- MCP uses JSON RPC for communication between agents and external servers.
- MCP and ADK solve different problems and are not competing tools.
TAKEAWAYS
- MCP eliminates the need for custom integrations by standardizing external connectivity for AI agents.
- ADK helps structure and manage the orchestration of multiple AI agents.
- JSON RPC is the communication protocol used by MCP to interact with external resources.
- Understanding when to use MCP or ADK depends on whether the focus is on connectivity or agent development.