For the last two years, generative AI has been a “brain in a jar.” It could think, reason, and write upon request, but it remained passive—it couldn’t actually touch anything. That isolation is ending.
The shift from passive chat to active execution is driven by the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open-source protocol that gives the AI “hands.” With MCP, an AI model gains the ability to interact with the world; once this connectivity is established, developers can build Agents that perform autonomous actions. These agents can then reach into your file system, query production databases, and push code to GitHub—transforming the model from a passive advisor into an active participant in your infrastructure.
However, giving AI hands means your AI can now break things. By adopting MCP, you are essentially granting autonomous agents valid credentials to your internal infrastructure. In this ebook, we’ll explore the hidden risks of this new Agentic Software Supply Chain and outline a framework for governing these AI “hands” with the same rigor, security, and visibility you apply to your traditional software.