Part 1: Protocol Fundamentals & Transport Evolution
To master a protocol, you must understand its DNA. Before we write Go code in the upcoming parts, we need to dismantle the architecture of the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Underneath the complex AI workflows, MCP is surprisingly simple and elegant. It is built on top of the JSON-RPC 2.0 specification, a stateless, lightweight remote procedure call protocol. When comparing modern system architectures, especially high-throughput environments discussed in the Shopee Architecture Series, engineers often lean towards binary protocols like gRPC. However, MCP chose JSON-RPC for a very specific reason: LLMs natively understand JSON, and debugging a prompt trace is exponentially easier when the payload is human-readable text rather than compiled Protocol Buffers. ...