Are you building traditional software? Most likely, yes.

But a shift is underway towards *agentic software*. Understanding this transition is becoming essential.

Consider Docker's recent AI Agent update. Docker, a quintessential traditional software tool, introduced an AI agent. What’s significant is how this agent exposes its capabilities—like managing containers or running security scans—using Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP).

MCP is an open standard designed to standardize how applications provide context and functions to large language models (LLMs) and AI agents. It defines a client-server protocol where an AI client (like Docker's agent, Claude Desktop, or Cursor) requests actions or context from an MCP server. The server executes code, calls APIs, or retrieves data to fulfill the request.

Docker's AI agent uses MCP to offer a suite of tools. These functions cover:

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