# MCP Integration

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is fundamental to how SigilAI's security services interact with AI clients like Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI-powered development tools. It provides a standardized communication bridge, enabling AI systems to seamlessly leverage SigilAI's advanced security scanning capabilities.

### What is MCP?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard designed to facilitate reliable and structured communication between AI models and external tools or services. Key goals of MCP include:

* **Tool Discovery**: Allowing AI clients to dynamically discover available tools and understand their functionalities, parameters, and expected outputs.
* **Standardized Invocation**: Providing a consistent way for AI to call external tools with specific inputs.
* **Structured Data Exchange**: Ensuring that results from tools are returned in a predictable and parsable format.
* **Context Management**: Enabling the management of session information and contextual data relevant to tool interactions.

By adopting MCP, SigilAI ensures its security tools are easily accessible and interoperable with a growing ecosystem of MCP-compliant AI platforms.

### How SigilAI Uses MCP

SigilAI exposes its security scanning functionalities (like URL analysis and file/code scanning) as MCP tools. When an AI client needs to perform a security check, it uses the MCP protocol to:

1. **Identify the SigilAI tool** it needs (e.g., `scan_url` or `scan_file`).
2. **Construct an MCP `tool_call` message** with the required parameters (like the URL to be scanned or the file content).
3. **Send this message** to the SigilAI cloud-hosted MCP server.

The SigilAI server then processes the request, performs the security analysis using its specialized engines, and returns the findings as an MCP `tool_result` message.

#### Conceptual Message Flow

This diagram illustrates a typical interaction:

<figure><img src="https://2748511689-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FWyQn1eu5V1hFHmHhQYDj%2Fuploads%2Fx8Ii6kEtWt8FvAQoktE5%2Fd6.jpg?alt=media&#x26;token=f1b79926-bbc0-47b8-a3b3-579284f330e3" alt="" width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Benefits of MCP for SigilAI Integration

Using MCP as the integration layer offers several advantages:

* **Simplicity for AI Developers**: AI platform developers can integrate with a wide range of tools, including SigilAI's, using a single, consistent protocol.
* **Enhanced AI Capabilities**: Empowers AI models with direct access to sophisticated, real-world security scanning, making them more knowledgeable and safer.
* **Interoperability**: Promotes a future where AI clients can seamlessly switch between or combine tools from various MCP-compliant providers.
* **Clear Contracts**: The schemas defined by MCP tools provide a clear contract for inputs and outputs, reducing integration errors.
* **Focus on Core Competencies**: SigilAI focuses on providing best-in-class security analysis, while AI platforms focus on language understanding and user interaction, with MCP bridging the gap.

### Best Practices for Integrating with SigilAI via MCP

When your AI client interacts with the SigilAI MCP server:

* **Secure Your API Key**: Always protect your SigilAI API key. It should be treated as a sensitive credential.
* **Validate Inputs Client-Side (where feasible)**: Basic checks on parameters (e.g., valid URL format) before sending to SigilAI can improve efficiency.
* **Handle Asynchronous Operations**: Security scans can take time. Design your client to manage asynchronous responses gracefully.
* **Implement Robust Error Handling**: Be prepared to handle various MCP error messages and HTTP status codes (e.g., for rate limiting or authentication issues).
* **Use Server-Provided Instructions**: Pay attention to the `instructions` field provided by the SigilAI MCP server (often in the `server_info` message) for guidance on using its tools effectively.
* **Stay Updated**: Refer to this documentation and the API Reference for the latest on tool parameters and best practices.

By leveraging MCP, SigilAI aims to make advanced security scanning a readily available and easily integrable capability for all AI-driven applications.

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Next: [Components](components)
