A bank wants an agent to read account flags on a mainframe. That mainframe publishes no Model Context Protocol server and no API. A designer still asks to select the protocol this quarter. What should the architect decide?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
You cannot plug a phone into a jack the building does not have. You reject Model Context Protocol until the mainframe exposes a server, and a sentence in the instructions does not create one. An old extract renamed as a server is still a file.
Full Explanation
Model Context Protocol fits a tool server that already speaks it. This mainframe publishes no protocol server and no API, so selecting the protocol this quarter is the wrong choice until a server exists. Selecting the protocol this quarter and writing the missing server name into the agent instructions names a server the mainframe does not run, and the agent will have nothing to call. Pointing the agent at a nightly batch file and treating that file name as the mainframe's protocol server confuses a file drop with a tool server. Training a custom model on an old flag extract and registering that model as the mainframe's protocol server freezes yesterday's flags and still does not publish a protocol endpoint. A model endpoint is not a tool server, and a file is not one either. Exam caveat: a batch file, a model, or a server name written into the instructions is not a server the mainframe hosts. The protocol waits until that host is real. Operational check: the design record says the protocol is deferred, and no agent connection points at a server name the mainframe does not host.