---
title: "Terminology"
description: "The words the mcpdesc project uses — the format, its documents, the specification, the community, and the tools — and how to use them consistently."
source: "https://mcpdesc.org/docs/terminology/"
---

Clear, shared vocabulary keeps the project easy to talk about. This page is the reader-facing summary; maintainers and contributors follow the fuller **Terminology & Positioning** guide kept with the project’s governance docs.

## Quick glossary

| Term                                                | Use it for                                                                                                                   |
| --------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **MCP Description**                                 | The **format** — a portable, machine-readable way to describe MCP servers.                                                   |
| **mcpdesc**                                         | The short, **technical** name for MCP Description — used for files, schemas, packages, commands, domains.                    |
| **MCP Description document** / **mcpdesc document** | A concrete YAML or JSON file written in the format.                                                                          |
| **MCP Description specification**                   | The formal, versioned definition of the format (e.g. v0.7.0).                                                                |
| **MCP Toolkit**                                     | One tool suite that reads and writes the format; an open-source project initiated by Cisco DevNet, maintained at cisco-open. |
| **mcpdesc Editor**                                  | The open-source editor component behind the Live Editor (tool id: **mcpeditor**, @cisco\_open/mcptoolkit-editor).            |
| **Live Editor**                                     | The hosted, browser-based editor experience at mcpdesc.org for mcpdesc documents (formal: **Live MCP Description Editor**).  |
| **{mcpdesc}**                                       | The **brand / wordmark** — the project, community, and visual identity.                                                      |
| **the {mcpdesc} project**                           | The initiative as a whole — format, spec, docs, tools, site, governance.                                                     |
| **the {mcpdesc} Community**                         | The people around it — maintainers, contributors, users, adopters.                                                           |

## What it is

The **`{mcpdesc}` project** is an independent open source initiative promoting an open, portable, machine-readable **description format** for MCP servers. The goal is to help the MCP ecosystem converge on interoperable server descriptions.

**MCP Description** (`mcpdesc`) is that format: it declares what an MCP server offers — its tools, resources, prompts, transports, security, and metadata — in a single static document. Think OpenAPI, but for the Model Context Protocol.

* The formal name is **MCP Description**; the short technical name is **`mcpdesc`**; the brand/wordmark is **`{mcpdesc}`**.
* The format is for **describing** servers. Validating, documenting, mocking, and testing are things **tools** do with a description — not properties of the format itself.

## Documents

A concrete file in the format is an **MCP Description document** (formal) or an **`mcpdesc` document** (short). The recommended file extension is **`.mcpdesc.yaml`** or **`.mcpdesc.json`**.

Please **do not pluralize the format name** as “MCP Descriptions” — use “MCP Description documents” or “`mcpdesc` documents”.

## The specification

The **MCP Description specification** is the formal, versioned definition of the format. The current version is **0.7.0**, maintained today in the [cisco-open contract repository](https://github.com/cisco-open/mcptoolkit-contract/tree/main/spec). A community-hosted specification at `spec.mcpdesc.org` is planned.

## The community

The **`{mcpdesc}` project** is **led by its maintainers** and open to contributions from the broader community — contributors, users, adopters, and tool builders. Contributors retain copyright to their work and license it under Apache-2.0; there is no CLA and no copyright assignment.

The project is **not** a Cisco product, service, or official Cisco standardization effort. “MCP” and “Model Context Protocol” refer to the open protocol ecosystem; this project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic or other MCP ecosystem vendors unless explicitly stated.

## The tools

* **MCP Toolkit** — one of the first tool suites that use `mcpdesc` documents to inspect, document, compare, mock, validate, and test MCP servers. It is an open-source project initiated by Cisco DevNet, released under Apache-2.0 and maintained at cisco-open — `@cisco_open/mcptoolkit-*` package names.
* **Live Editor** — the hosted, browser-based editor experience at mcpdesc.org for authoring, validating, previewing, and exporting `mcpdesc` documents (formal: **Live MCP Description Editor**). It embeds the open-source **mcpdesc Editor** component (tool id: **mcpeditor**, `@cisco_open/mcptoolkit-editor`).

Other tools that read or write `mcpdesc` are welcome in the neutral [tools catalog](/tools).

## Wordmark

The braced form **`{mcpdesc}`** is the project’s **brand and wordmark** — use it for the project, community, and visual identity. Use the plain name **`mcpdesc`** for technical references (files, packages, commands), and **MCP Description** for the formal format name.