gRPC Conf 2025

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) has quickly become the standard for exposing tool interfaces to LLMs since its debut in late 2024. But MCP is JSON Schema-based and HTTP-first - so where does that leave gRPC and Protobuf? At Redpanda Data, we believe they can and should coexist.

In this session, we introduce protoc-gen-go-mcp, an open-source plugin that generates MCP servers from existing gRPC APIs. With just one additional protoc plugin, developers can expose structured, validated MCP endpoints backed by gRPC - no manual glue code needed.

We’ll explore:

- How MCP works and why it matters for gRPC developers
- Benefits of reusing the Protobuf ecosystem for MCP
- The design and usage of protoc-gen-go-mcp
- Schema translation challenges between Protobuf and JSON Schema
- LLM vendor differences and what they mean for API developers

Attendees will gain a clear path to exposing gRPC services as MCP tools - enabling LLM integration without sacrificing infrastructure or tooling.