One standard connection, and the same permission question.
The Model Context Protocol is an open standard for connecting assistants to tools and data. Our work is scoping what assistants can reach and governing the identity behind the connection.
The Model Context Protocol is how assistants reach systems of record. Standardizing the connection removed the integration problem and left the governance one untouched.
What it is
The Model Context Protocol is an open standard for connecting assistants to tools and data. Anthropic authored it and donated it to the Linux Foundation in December 2025, and it is now how most assistants reach a system of record, including Atlassian.
It is relevant to any organization whose teams are already connecting assistants to internal systems, which in practice means most of them, usually without a list of what is connected.
What it does
One protocol instead of many integrations
A single thing to govern rather than a bespoke connection per tool.
It inherits the connecting identity
Reach is decided by the account, not by the protocol, which is where the control belongs.
It is a foundation-governed standard
Vendor neutral, which is what makes it worth building a policy around rather than a workaround.
Where it fits
L4, agents and automation, entirely dependent on L1. The protocol carries no permissions of its own. It exposes exactly what the connecting identity may reach, which means the standard moved the hard part rather than solving it. The remaining question is which account an assistant connects as, and that is identity design.
What we do with it
Design the connecting identity
An assistant connects as an account. Designing that account rather than reusing an administrator credential is the entire control.
Connection policy
What may be connected, by whom, with what scope, and what evidence is retained.
Build beyond the standard server
Where the estate needs behavior the standard connection does not cover, we build it inside the permission model.
Where it earns its place
An organization with assistants already connected
Teams connected things themselves. The first deliverable is an inventory, not a policy.
A regulated estate asked what assistants can see
The answer is a permission model, and it either exists or it is written during the audit.
An engineering group connecting a coding assistant
Read access to the right repositories and nothing else is a design problem, not a toggle.
Proof
Monthly SDK downloads, following the donation of the protocol to the Linux Foundation in December 2025.
Anthropic and the Linux Foundation, December 2025.
AI Innovator Finalist, 2026
Atlassian Partner Awards, 2026