# Resources > For AI agents: the complete documentation index is available at https://reshapr.io/llms.txt and the full documentation bundle at https://reshapr.io/llms-full.txt. > Define MCP Resources to share contextual data — files, schemas, or application-specific information — with LLMs. # Resources As explained in **[Why reShapr?](../overview/why-reshapr.md)**, reShapr can create secure MCP servers in seconds without coding, just by importing your API’s existing artifacts - like **[OpenAPI 3.x](https://www.openapis.org/)** specs, **[GraphQL](https://graphql.org/)** schemas, and **[gRPC/Protobuf](https://grpc.io/)** definitions. These artifacts are directly used to produce **[MCP Tools](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-06-18/server/tools)** that are at the core of the Model Context Protocol. Another interesting aspect of MCP is that it may be composed of **[Resources](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-06-18/server/resources)**. Resources allow servers to share data that provides context to LLM, such as files, database schemas, or application-specific information. The key difference with tools is intent and usage pattern: - **Resources** are for when **you want to give the model access to existing data to read and reference**. Resources are designed to be **application-driven**, with host applications determining how to incorporate context based on their needs. - **Tools** are for when **you want the model to perform actions** or computations. Tools are designed to be **model-controlled**, meaning that the LLM can discover and invoke tools automatically based on its understanding and the user’s prompts. reShapr provides **an easy way to design and specify your Resources using a simple YAML description,** called the `Resources` specification. If you want to provide such resources to your reShapr-powered MCP endpoint, you’ll need to write this simple file and `attach` it to your existing Service. Let’s see a simple example of such a file: :::note This page describes the MCP `Resources` artifact (`kind: Resources`). It is distinct from the Kubernetes operator's singular **[`Resource` custom resource](https://github.com/reshaprio/reshapr-controllers/blob/main/documentation/resource-cr.md)**, which declares a resource through a CRD. ::: ```yaml apiVersion: reshapr.io/v1alpha1 kind: Resources service: name: Open-Meteo APIs version: '1.0' resources: 'file:///project/readme.md': name: README.MD title: Open-Meteo APIs readme description: Documentation on how to use the Open-Meteo APIs mimeType: text/plain icons: - src: file:///assets/icons/md-file-icon.png mimeType: image/png sizes: - "48x48" text: | ## Hello World Welcome to Open-Meteo API! Bla, bla, bla annotations: audience: - user priority: 0.8 ``` A `Resources` artifact follows some simple rules: - It always contains an identification section made of `apiVersion` and `kind` properties that **must** have the **`reshapr.io/v1alpha1`** and `Resources` values respectively, - It **must** be bound to a specific reShapr **[Service](../explanations/services-and-artifacts.md)** using the **`service.name`** and `service.version` properties whose values **must** match an already discovered Service, - The `resources` section then defines the resources: - We have a single resource here: **`file:///project/readme.md`**. Resource identifiers must be valid URIs with a scheme, such as `file:///project/readme.md` or `https://example.com/readme.md`. - A resource **must** always have a `name` that defines its short name, - A resource **may** provide optional `title`, `description`, `mimeType` and `icons` to provide more context to the Agent when choosing an appropriate resource, - A resource **may** also specify its content by using either a `text` or a `blob` property. `text` specifies its content as plain text, `blob` value must be encoded using Base64 - A resource **may** also specify `annotations` that provide hints to clients about how to use or display the resource. More on this in the **[official MCP documentation](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-11-25/server/resources#annotations)**. You can specify as many resources as you want in the same `Resources` artifact file. ## Resource templates As the above form represents the simplest way of doing things, reShapr also supports a more elaborate way of doing things via the concept of `resourceTemplates`. Resource templates represent parametrized resources using URI templates. Imagine you have a list of resources at a specific location (a URL), instead of describing each of them, you can use a template to parameterize the access. Resource Templates can be added to your `Resources` artifact using a `resourceTemplates` element like illustrated below: ```yaml resourceTemplates: 'file:///project/src/{path}?mode=raw': name: Project Source File title: 📁 Project Files description: Access files in the project directory mimeType: application/octet-stream icons: - src: file:///assets/icons/folder-icon.png mimeType: image/png sizes: - "48x48" ``` A `resourceTemplate` follows these rules: - The template identifier **must** contain a parameter delimited with curly braces, here `{path}` - It has the same basic properties as a `resource` except for the `mimeType` property that doesn’t make sense here, as we represent many resources - A template **must not** have `text` or `blob` to define its content. Because it represents a collection of resources, the discovery and fetching of content will be dynamic! To fetch its resource content, a `resourceTemplate` **will reuse [the backend endpoint URL](../explanations/configuration-and-exposition.md) coming from the MCP Server Configuration Plan!** As an example, imagine that you have configured your backend endpoint URL to be **`https://api.acme.com`**. When asking for a resource with `path=resources/doc.md`, your reShapr MCP Server will fetch **`https://api.acme.com/project/src/resources/doc.md?mode=raw`**. Depending on the received content (text or binary), the reShapr endpoint will use the correct encoding to allow your agent or host application to interpret this content.