---
type: concept
title: "Tool Standardization (USB-C for AI)"
description: "MCP standardizes how tools are exposed to LLMs, like a USB-C port for AI, so the same tools can be reused identically across any agent framework or host instead of hand-coding every capability."
tags: [mcp, tools, standardization, reuse, interoperability]
videos: [the-mcp-integration-everyone-is-sleeping-on-mcp-custom-ai-agents, claude-mcp-has-changed-ai-forever-heres-what-you-need-to-know]
created: 2026-07-21
updated: 2026-07-21
---

# Tool Standardization (USB-C for AI)

Tool standardization is the core promise of the Model Context Protocol: a single, universal way to give tools to an LLM so that any agent can consume any tool identically. "you can think of it like the USBC ports for AI applications so just like we use USB to in a standard way connect our devices very easily to all of our peripherals we use MCP as a standardized way to very easily connect our tools to our llm" [0:02:04]. Before this standard, every capability had to be wired by hand into every agent, in every framework, with a bespoke integration each time. Standardization collapses that N-times-M problem into a single interface.

The mechanism is an agreed-upon contract for how a tool describes itself and how a host invokes it. "the model context protocol has everyone fired up including me because of the way that it standardizes giving tools to llm" [0:00:00]. Cole frames the server side as the equivalent of a web API: "MCP is like API endpoints for our AI agents so just like companies create apis to expose their backend services to other applications MCP is the way to expose tools for AI agents" [0:02:22]. A company (or an individual) writes one MCP server, and every conformant host can now speak to it.

Why it matters is reuse. Because the interface is uniform, you stop rebuilding the same capability for each project: "that's the beauty of standardizing things with MCP we don't have to create the tools our elves I mean we still can if we want but we can reuse what other people have made for us" [0:07:44]. An ecosystem of ready-made servers (databases, file systems, search, SaaS APIs) becomes plug-in infrastructure. The other half of the payoff is host portability: the same server works everywhere. "it doesn't matter if we're creating our agent with n8n or we're using Cursor or we're building with Pydantic AI we can consume these servers in exactly the same way" [0:05:54].

## Builds on

- [Model Context Protocol (MCP)](./mcp.md) - the protocol that defines the standard interface tool standardization depends on.
- [MCP Server & Client Architecture](./mcp-architecture.md) - the server/client split that makes one server reusable by many hosts.

## Related

- [MCP with Custom Agents](./mcp-with-custom-agents.md) - consuming standardized servers from your own agent, not just off-the-shelf hosts.
- [Build Your Own MCP Server](./build-your-own-mcp-server.md) - the producer side: wrapping your own capabilities in the standard so others can reuse them.
- [The Problems With MCP Servers](./mcp-problems.md) - where the standardization payoff runs into token bloat, tool overload, and reliability costs.
- [Agent Protocols](./agent-protocols.md) - the broader family of standards MCP sits within.
- [Agent Client Protocol (ACP)](./agent-client-protocol.md) - a sibling standard, but for connecting agents to editors rather than tools to agents.
- [Capabilities Over Tools](./capabilities-over-tools.md) - the argument that raw tool count is not the goal, which tempers the reuse-everything instinct.

## Tools

- [MCP (Model Context Protocol)](../entities/tools/mcp.md) - the standard itself, realized as servers and clients.
- [n8n](../entities/tools/n8n.md), [Cursor](../entities/tools/cursor.md), [Pydantic AI](../entities/tools/pydantic-ai.md) - hosts Cole names as consuming the same servers in exactly the same way, the concrete proof of portability.
- [LangChain](../entities/tools/langchain.md) - another framework that can consume standardized MCP servers.

## Sources

- [The MCP Integration EVERYONE is Sleeping On (MCP + Custom AI Agents)](../sources/the-mcp-integration-everyone-is-sleeping-on-mcp-custom-ai-agents.md) - "[0:07:44] that's the beauty of standardizing things with MCP we don't have to create the tools our elves I mean we still can if we want but we can reuse what other people have made for us"
- [Claude MCP has Changed AI Forever - Here's What You NEED to Know](../sources/claude-mcp-has-changed-ai-forever-heres-what-you-need-to-know.md) - "[0:02:04] you can think of it like the USBC ports for AI applications so just like we use USB to in a standard way connect our devices very easily to all of our peripherals we use MCP as a standardized way to very easily connect our tools to our llm"
