GlossaryMCP and agents
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.
For an agent
Through an agent.
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.