In a nutshell, the term metaprogramming refers to writing code that can dynamically change its behavior at runtime. A Meta-Object Protocol (MOP) refers to the capabilities in a dynamic language that enable metaprogramming. In Groovy, the MOP consists of four distinct capabilities within the language: reflection, metaclasses, categories, and expandos.

The MOP is at the core of what makes Groovy so useful for defining DSLs. The MOP is what allows us to bend the language in different ways in order to meet our needs, by changing the behavior of classes on the fly. This section will guide you through the capabilities of MOP and, based on what we learn, we will later dissect some builder code in order to understand how builders work under the covers.