About this talk
Our MCP Dev Summit 2026 talk on designing MCP apps and ChatGPT Plugins that agents actually invoke, drawn from enterprise builds and an analysis of 316 live ChatGPT Plugins covering 2,178 tools.
Key points from “Principles for designing MCP Apps - talk at MCP Dev Summit 2026”
- Start from user goals and intents, not from your API.
- Treat tool descriptions like a system prompt: the model reads them to decide what to call.
- Test in the real client, and design for distribution from the start.
Prefer to read? 7 principles for designing ChatGPT Plugins and MCP apps covers the same ground in writing.
Related reading
- 7 principles for designing ChatGPT Plugins and MCP apps. What makes agents actually invoke your tools.
- ChatGPT Plugin discoverability: the complete guide. Metadata, prompt testing and optimization for ChatGPT Plugins.
- ChatGPT Plugin discovery: how to get suggested. How ChatGPT decides which Plugins to suggest, and how to get yours picked.
- MCP Directory: every ChatGPT Plugin and Claude Connector. Search and compare listings, ranked and updated daily.