RAG vs MCP is the wrong debate — here's the right framing for production AI systems

The question I keep seeing in every AI engineering forum right now: "Should we use RAG or MCP?" It's the wrong question. And the fact that it's being asked at all tells me the field hasn't yet settled on a shared mental model for agentic AI architecture. Here's the framing I use — and why getting this wrong has real production consequences. RAG and MCP operate at different layers RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) and MCP (Model Context Protocol) are not alternatives. They are not competitors.