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What is MCP?

beginner 🤖 LLM-friendly 3 min · 565 words Updated: 2026-06-27 English

Model Context Protocol lets LLMs call external tools. Synapse exposes 79 tools via official MCP server.

Read this article as: 📄 Plain Text ⚡ JSON 🤖 LLM Format
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What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard by Anthropic (2024) that lets LLMs call external tools in a structured way. Instead of pasting API docs into the prompt, you register tools with the MCP server, and the LLM calls them as needed — like function calling, but standardized and client-agnostic.

Synapse MCP Server

Synapse ships an official MCP server (synapse-mcp-api on npm) that exposes 79 tools covering all Synapse features:

Category Tools Count
Memory recall, list, store, search, semantic-search, update, delete, bulk-delete, stats, unverified, contradictions, audit, related, by-tag, diff, expiring, health, sync, embed-batch, verify, unverify, mind-export 22
Chat poll, reply, status, history, unread, send, upload 7
Scheduler cron_list, cron_create, cron_delete, cron_toggle, var_list, var_get, var_set, var_delete 8
Tasks task_list, task_get, task_create, task_update 4
Scripts script_list, script_get, script_info, script_store, script_delete 5
Computers computer_list, computer_get, install_code, screenshot, command_queue, command_status, commands_list, disable, delete 9
Push vapid_public_key, subscribe, unsubscribe, test 4
User/Mind register, login, minds_list, mind_create, mind_delete 5
Utility time, calc, random 3
Visualization graph, tags, compact 3
Sharing share, list, revoke 3
Webhooks register, list, get, update, delete 5
Browser new, navigate, click, type, screenshot, close 6
Total 79+

How It Works

┌──────────────────┐    MCP protocol    ┌──────────────────┐    HTTP    ┌──────────┐
│  LLM Client      │ ◀─────────────────▶│  Synapse MCP     │ ─────────▶ │ Synapse  │
│ (Claude/Cursor)  │   (stdio/SSE/WS)   │  Server          │            │ API      │
└──────────────────┘                    └──────────────────┘            └──────────┘
  1. You configure your LLM client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.) to use the Synapse MCP server
  2. The client starts the MCP server (via npx -y synapse-mcp-api@latest)
  3. The MCP server connects to Synapse API using your Mind Key
  4. The LLM sees all 79 tools as native functions it can call
  5. When the LLM needs to remember something, it calls memory_store — the MCP server translates this to POST /memory on Synapse

Transports

The Synapse MCP server supports three transports:

stdio (local, recommended for desktop)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "synapse": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "synapse-mcp-api@latest"],
      "env": {
        "SYNAPSE_MIND_KEY": "mk_...",
        "SYNAPSE_URL": "https://synapse.schaefer.zone"
      }
    }
  }
}

HTTP/SSE (remote, multi-tenant)

Connect your MCP client to:

URL: https://synapse-mcp.schaefer.zone/sse
Headers: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_MIND_KEY

WebSocket (mobile, high-volume)

URL: wss://synapse-mcp.schaefer.zone/ws?mind_key=YOUR_MIND_KEY

Tool Profiles (v1.4.0)

To reduce token overhead for smaller LLMs, the MCP server supports three tool profiles:

Profile Tools Tokens Best For
minimal 8 (composite dispatch) ~500 Self-hosted LLMs with ≤8k context
standard 25 (named) ~2,500 Mid-size LLMs (Claude Haiku, GPT-3.5)
full 119 (all) ~8,250 Large LLMs (Claude Sonnet/Opus, GPT-4) — default

Control via:

  • Env var: MCP_PROFILE=minimal|standard|full
  • Header: Mcp-Tool-Profile: minimal|standard|full

Supported Clients

Why Use MCP Instead of Direct API?

Approach Pros Cons
Direct API Simple, no extra layer LLM needs to know URLs, headers, auth
MCP LLM sees native tools, no URL memorization Extra MCP server process

For most LLM agent use cases, MCP is the better choice — the LLM doesn't need to remember API paths or auth patterns.

Next Steps

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