As AI agents expand their reach, enabling them to interact with external systems in a smart, scalable way is becoming essential. Enter the Model Context Protocol (MCP): a design pattern for bridging reasoning models with real-world tools. This session explores how to build an MCP server using Java to allow AI clients to query and interact with a MySQL database. We’ll walk through the architecture, key integration strategies, and lessons learned from a real-world implementation. Whether you're navigating the future of AI orchestration or just curious about the connective tissue behind intelligent systems, this talk offers practical insights and inspiration to power up your next project.