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MCP was always a bad idea?

335 points · 331 comments · maharshi365

  1. simonw · · focus · HN ↗
    This article entirely misses the value that MCP brings today.

    Sure, there's almost no reason to use MCPs if you are running a full-blown terminal agent (Claude Code, Codex, Meta Muse, OpenClaw etc) with unfettered internet access - just let it call APIs directly.

    If you want to operate something that's less YOLO than that, you'll find yourself wanting:

    1. Control over exactly which external services it can access

    2. A way to handle authentication that doesn't allow the agent to directly access API keys

    3. A sensible UI to allow users to connect and authenticate further services

    4. Strong audit logging for what's going on

    MCP makes all of that so much easier to provide.

    Thinking MCP is obsolete because full coding agents don't need it misses out on all of the other things we might want to build.

    1. rsolva · · focus · HN ↗
      Exactly, in our company, we have built MCPs that simplifies interactions with internal tools we use a lot, which saves time and tokens. Sure, we could let the agent poke and fumble around with a not-so-ideal API too, but it makes sense to formalize it and give the agents quick access to what we want it to fetch 99% of the time.
      1. 0x445442 · · focus · HN ↗
        What interactions with internal tools? If you can answer that question then the clankers can help you write a deterministic program for that same interaction and you only spend the tokens once.
        1. 0x696C6961 · · focus · HN ↗
          Yeah that's a good idea. Then we should standardize these tools and find an easy way for agents to discover and use them. ... Oh wait
          1. mjmas · · focus · HN ↗
            And call it not-closed API or something like that.
          2. 0x445442 · · focus · HN ↗
            Just tell the clanker to read the api documentation that should already exist. You dont need an MCP server for that.
          3. jimbokun · · focus · HN ↗
            Congrats you just invented the Unix shell!
            1. wezabis · · focus · HN ↗

              [dead]

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