CorpusIQ is now live in the ChatGPT app store. Find CorpusIQ in ChatGPT
Connector directory
Files & Storage
Advertising & Analytics
CRM
Email Marketing
Commerce
Finance
Connector directory
Answers
RAG and MCP solve two different problems in an AI assistant. RAG, or retrieval-augmented generation, makes the assistant look up real information before it answers and cite where each fact came from. MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is the connection layer that lets the assistant reach live tools and data in the first place. RAG grounds the answer in real sources. MCP reaches those sources. Most production setups use both: MCP connects the systems, and retrieval grounds the answer in what those systems returned, with a citation on every figure.
Related pillar: Model Context Protocol overview
RAG and MCP are often mentioned together, but they sit on different layers and solve different problems. MCP is the plumbing: it connects an assistant to the systems that hold your data, and carries the requests and results back and forth. RAG is the reading: it takes real information and puts it in front of the model so the answer is grounded instead of guessed. One reaches the source, the other uses it. Confusing them is like confusing the pipe that carries water with the glass you drink from.
RAG stands for retrieval-augmented generation. Before the model writes an answer, a retriever pulls the relevant records, and the model answers from those records instead of from memory. The point is grounding: the answer is built on real data, and each figure can point back to the record it came from. Without retrieval, a model answers from its training, which can be out of date or simply wrong for your business. Retrieval closes that gap by putting your actual numbers in front of the model at the moment it answers.
MCP is the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for connecting an assistant to outside tools and data. Before MCP, every tool needed its own integration, and every assistant talked to every tool a different way. MCP gives all of them one shared way to connect: the assistant becomes the client, the connected system becomes the server, and the protocol carries the request and the result. It does not answer your question and it does not decide what is true. It connects, and it lets you see and revoke what is connected.
RAG needs something to retrieve from, and MCP is how a live system gets reached. MCP carries the request to your records; retrieval grounds the answer in what came back. A setup that has MCP but no grounding can still answer from memory. A setup that has retrieval but no live connection is grounded in a stale copy. The two together are what turn an assistant from a chat interface into a tool that answers about your actual business, with a citation you can check.
CorpusIQ connects 40+ business tools to ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity through per-account authorization, and every connection is read-only access. The assistant reaches your systems over MCP, reads only the records that answer the question, and returns figures with citations that link back to the source. It does not create campaigns, change bids or budgets, send email, or edit records in the systems you connect. Start with one question that matters and connect only the systems that hold the answer.
40+ read-only connectors. ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Solo $29.95 a month. 30-day free trial.