Elevata

RAG + MCP + AWS

RAG and MCP on AWS for Canadian Companies

Elevata designs AI systems that combine knowledge retrieval, Model Context Protocol (MCP), tool context, and AWS services to deliver auditable answers and actions.

Architecture decisions

Architecture decisions before you build

Data boundary

Retrieved, embedded, and logged data

Which documents, records, prompts, embeddings, logs, traces, and evaluation data can be used by the AI workflow, and where are they allowed to live?

Retrieval design

Knowledge Bases, vector stores, search, and ranking

Will the system use Bedrock Knowledge Bases, a custom vector store, search APIs, or a hybrid approach? How will permissions, freshness, citations, and source ranking be handled?

Tool boundary

Explicit, limited, and reversible actions

Which actions are read-only, which require approval, and which should never be delegated to an agent? MCP should make tool access explicit, limited, logged, and reversible.

Production controls

Quality, cost, latency, and auditability

What will be measured before launch: answer quality, retrieval accuracy, tool-call accuracy, cost per answer, latency, safe refusal, auditability, and rollback?

Canadian Region and privacy review

Region and privacy by workflow

Decide whether prompts, retrieved context, embeddings, logs, traces, backups, and evaluation data need to stay in a Canadian AWS Region, and whether cross-Region inference is acceptable for the workflow.

RAG

RAG connects models to controlled knowledge

RAG retrieves documents, policies, data, or search results to ground model answers. In production, the challenge is permissioning, freshness, chunking, evaluation, traceability, and cost.

MCP

MCP organizes tool context

Model Context Protocol (MCP) helps agents and applications communicate with tools and data sources in a standardized way. On AWS, it needs to integrate with IAM, network, logs, secrets, limits, and observability.

Reference architecture

How RAG and MCP connect in production

Reference flow

  • User -> authentication and role context -> router -> RAG retriever -> knowledge base/vector index -> MCP server for approved tools.
  • Bedrock receives minimal context, Guardrails and application policy validate answers and tool calls, and human approval enters when the action is sensitive.
  • Logs, traces, and the evaluation set capture metadata, sources, permissions, and cost without storing sensitive prompts by default.

Canadian design questions

  • Do retrieved context, embeddings, logs, traces, backups, or evaluation data need to stay in a Canadian Region?
  • Is CRIS or another cross-Region route acceptable for this workflow, contract, or customer policy?
  • Which privacy, vendor-risk, or document-permission review needs to happen before the pilot?

When MCP is not needed

  • Static FAQ, documentation search, or simple chatbot with no actions in external systems.
  • Deterministic workflow where forms, rules, and traditional integrations are clearer than an agent.
  • Scenario with no owner to approve tool calls, limits, audit, and failure states.

RAG

answers grounded in controlled knowledge

MCP

tool context

AWS

security and operations

Frequently asked questions

What do people ask about RAG and MCP on AWS for Canadian Companies?

What is the difference between RAG and MCP?

RAG retrieves knowledge to ground answers. Model Context Protocol (MCP) standardizes how applications and agents access tools and context sources. They are complementary in AI systems that need to answer and act.

Can RAG and MCP run on AWS in Canada?

Yes, depending on chosen services, Region requirements, and availability. The design should assess data, logs, network, authentication, and integrations before production.

When should we use agents instead of only RAG?

Use agents when AI needs to execute steps, query tools, call APIs, or follow workflows. For informational answers only, simple RAG may be enough.

Talk to Elevata

Design your RAG + MCP on AWS

Share data sources, tools, users, and Region requirements. We will respond with an initial architecture for review.

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