What if you don't need MCP at all?

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>

1.) Awareness doesn’t mean they will use it. And in practice they often don’t use them.

2.) “ unlike cli tools or APIs you don't have to constantly remind it what MCPs it has available” - this doesn’t match my experience. In fact, bash commands are substantially more discoverable.

3.) Again, this doesn’t match my experience and the major providers recommend including available MCP tools in system prompts/CLAUDE.md/whatever.

4.) Can’t speak to this as it’s not part of my workflow for the previous reasons.

The only useful MCP for me is Playwright for front end work.

Chrome Devtools is similarly an extremely high value MCP for me.

I would agree that if you don't find they add discoverability then MCPs would have no value for you and be worse than cli tools. It sounds like we have had very opposite experiences here.

Interesting. Perhaps it comes down to which platforms we're working on. I don't want to be outright dismissive of it. My primary platform is Claude Code. Are you working with another driver e.g. OpenAI Codex?