Understanding JSON-RPC: The Protocol Behind MCP

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been diving into the Model Context Protocol (MCP) lately. Honestly, it’s the most exciting thing happening in AI infrastructure right now. But here’s the thing: to really understand MCP, you need to understand JSON-RPC first. That’s what MCP is built on.

So let me break down JSON-RPC for you. Once you get this, MCP will make way more sense.

First, let’s talk about how JSON-RPC is different from the REST APIs we’re all used to. REST is stateless and unidirectional where each request is independent. Check this out:

Mcp on Ou David | Systems Engineer

Understanding JSON-RPC: The Protocol Behind MCP