An MCP client is the consumer side of the Model Context Protocol connection. It connects to a server, learns which capabilities are available and makes those capabilities accessible to the model or application. The client is responsible for managing the connection and presenting results in the host application’s workflow.
In practice the client is usually part of a chat app, a code editor or an AI agent you build. It lists the available tools to the model, forwards the model's tool requests to the server and returns the results. Show users which servers are connected and ask for approval on actions with side effects, since a tool description or result from an untrusted server can contain misleading instructions.
A client should not blindly trust every server description or tool result. Users and developers should check which servers are connected and what permissions they receive. Related: Model Context Protocol (MCP), MCP Server.