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What if you don't need MCP at all?

(mariozechner.at)
237 points jdkee | 1 comments | 16 Nov 25 18:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.224s | source
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upghost ◴[16 Nov 25 23:31 UTC] No.45949444[source]▶
So I don't disagree with any of the criticisms of MCPs but no one here has mentioned why they are useful, and I'm not sure that everyone is aware that MCP is actually just a wrapper over existing cli/API:

1. Claude Code is aware of what MCPs it has access to at all times.

2. Adding an MCP is like adding to the agent's actuators/vocabulary/tools because unlike cli tools or APIs you don't have to constantly remind it what MCPs it has available and "hey you have access to X" and "hey make an MCP for X" take the same level of effort on the part of the user.

3. This effect is _significantly_ stronger than putting info about available API/cli into CLAUDE.md.

4. You can almost trivially create an MCP that does X by asking the agent to create an MCP that does X. This saves you from having to constantly remind an agent it can do X.

NOTE: I cannot stress enough that this property of MCPs is COMPLETELY ORTHOGONAL to the nutty way they are implemented, and I am IN NO WAY defending the implementation. But currently we are talking past the primary value prop.

I would personally prefer some other method but having a way to make agents extensible is extremely useful.

EXAMPLE:

"Make a bash script that does X."

<test manually to make sure it works>

"Now make an MCP called Xtool that uses X."

<restart claude>

<claude is now aware it can do Xtool>

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1. badlogic ◴[17 Nov 25 00:09 UTC] No.45949725[source]▶
Also not disagreeing with your argument. Just want to point out that you can achieve the same by putting minimal info about your CLI tools in your global or project specific CLAUDE.md.

The only downside here is that it's more work than `claude mcp add x -- npx x@latest`. But you get composability in return, as well as the intermediate tool outputs not having to pass through the model's context.