MCP-AG2 Integration Example

This project demonstrates the integration of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) with AutoGen (AG2), showcasing a powerful pattern for building modular, tool-enabled AI agents.

Overview

The example implements three key components:

1. MCP Server: A process that exposes resources and tools following the MCP specification
2. MCPAssistantAgent: An AutoGen AssistantAgent extension that implements the MCP client interface
3. Example Script: Demonstrates an MCP-enabled agent using LLM capabilities with MCP resources/tools

Setup

Prerequisites

1. Install uv package manager:

# macOS
brew install uv

# Other platforms
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/jtanningbed/mcp-ag2-example
cd mcp-ag2-example

# Install dependencies
uv sync

# Run the example
uv run example.py

Key Benefits

This integration pattern offers several advantages over traditional tool/function calling implementations:

1. Protocol-Level Interface Abstraction

• The MCP client interface itself (read_resource, call_tool, etc.) is exposed to the LLM agent through AG2's tool registration
• Rather than registering individual tools directly with AG2, we register only the core MCP interface methods
• All specific tools (e.g., write_file) are proxied through the call_tool interface to the MCP server
• This means tools defined on the MCP server don't need any format conversion for different LLMs - they remain in Anthropic schema format

2. Dynamic Tool Discovery and Model Agnosticism

• Agents use list_tools to discover available server tools
• While the MCP server defines tools using Anthropic's schema format, the LLM never sees these directly
• The LLM only needs to understand how to use call_tool with a name and arguments
• No need to convert tool schemas between different LLM formats since they're abstracted behind the MCP interface

3. Clean Separation of Concerns

• MCP server handles:
  • Tool implementation details
  • Tool schema definitions (in Anthropic format)
  • Resource management
• Agent only handles:
  • Understanding the core MCP interface methods
  • Using call_tool to proxy specific tool requests to the server
• LLM integration layer only handles:
  • Registering MCP interface methods as tools (e.g., call_tool in OpenAI format)
  • Routing tool calls through the MCP client

AutoGen-Specific Benefits

When compared to traditional AutoGen tool implementations:

1. Simplified Tool Integration

   • No need to define tool schemas in multiple formats
   • Tools are defined once on the MCP server in Anthropic format
   • AG2 only needs the call_tool interface registered

2. Enhanced Modularity

   • MCP servers can be used by any MCP-compatible client
   • Tools and resources are completely decoupled from agent implementation
   • New tools can be added to the server without any agent changes

Architecture Overview

graph LR
    A[LLM] -->|Uses| B[AG2 Tool Interface]
    B -->|Registered| C[MCP Interface Methods]
    C -->|Proxy| D[MCP Client]
    D -->|Protocol| E[MCP Server]
    E -->|Implements| F[Tools & Resources]

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