Remote MCP server
An MCP server reached over HTTP at a URL, rather than installed and run on the user's own machine.
In detail.
A remote server is pasted into a client as a URL and works immediately: nothing installed, no runtime, no developer token to obtain. Authentication happens through OAuth in the browser, so no credential is typed into a chat window.
The trade is where the credentials live. A local server keeps the platform token on the machine that runs it. A remote server holds it on the operator's infrastructure, which is a real decision to make deliberately rather than by default.
Through an agent.
What changes when a model asks instead of a person.
Remote servers can update their tool surface without the user reinstalling anything, which is convenient and also means the set of tools a model saw yesterday is not guaranteed to be the set it sees today.