Learning Objectives
After completing this lesson, you'll be able to:
In this lesson, you will:
- Optional: Watch a demonstration video (it repeats what we cover in live training).
- Scroll down to read the activity instructions below and, if it has an exercise, follow the steps in your lab.
- Complete the quiz at the end of this lesson.
- Click 'Next' to mark the lesson complete.
Resources
Note
Terminology
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
An open standard that gives applications a consistent way to connect to external systems, discover what capabilities they expose, and invoke them. Any MCP client can work with any MCP server, regardless of the underlying technology.
Text
Description text
MCP Server
A system that makes its capabilities available through MCP. FME Flow, for example, acts as an MCP server by exposing workspaces as callable tools.
MCP Client
An application that connects to an MCP server to discover and use its capabilities. FME acts as an MCP client when the MCPCaller invokes tools from an external server.
MCP Tool
An operation that a client can invoke on an MCP server. Tools accept defined inputs, execute an operation, and return structured results. Operations can include anything from data retrieval and updates to processing, analysis, or complex workflow logic.
MCP Resource
Data that an MCP server makes available for clients to read, such as files, records, or documents. Unlike tools, resources are not invoked — they are accessed directly.
MCP Prompt
A reusable template provided by an MCP server, typically used to supply context or instructions to a client.
MCP Caller
The FME package you use to connect a workspace to an external MCP server and call its tools, resources, or prompts from within a workflow.
Introducing MCP
MCP, or Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that gives applications a common way to discover and use tools from other systems. Instead of building a custom integration for every tool or service, MCP gives those systems a shared way to describe what they can do and how to call them.
** Add content on MCP Clients and Servers**
In FME, MCP works in both directions. FME can act as a client by using the MCPCaller transformer to call tools from external MCP servers. FME Flow can also act as an MCP server by exposing FME workspaces as tools that MCP-compatible clients can discover and run.
That means FME can use tools from the broader MCP ecosystem, and it can also make FME workflows available to AI agents or other MCP clients.
FME as an MCP Client
MCP Caller introduction
FME as an MCP Server