Lately I found MCP to be much more than a coding tool. For example, I implemented it in my more complex macOS apps [0] like rcmd, Clop, Lunar, so they can be configured by natural language.
So even with a local Qwen and Pi you can now say things like:
Set up Clop to optimise any PNG that I drop in my website assets folder and convert to a webp with the same name near it
Get Crank to start Time Machine backups immediately when I connect my HDD and notify me when the backup is done.
I want to be able to hold rcmd and fuzzy search and focus cmux agent panes
BetterTouchTool has a great MCP which can create native SwiftUI views and bind them to hotkeys, trackpad gestures etc. It can leverage its immense macOS automation tools and private APIs to let agents do Computer Use.
You would need a much more capable coding model to code those tools from scratch and get the same fail-safe logic that the apps have honed over the years.
Like, since MCP, Crank [1] has fully replaced my use of crontab, launchd, scattered scripts I run once a week. Not that it could not do that before, but it's so much simpler now to just describe the automation and have it happen reliably and visible in the UI. The friction is gone.
I had no idea this was a thing: <a href="https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/AppleScript/Conceptual/AppleScriptLangGuide/reference/ASLR_folder_actions.html" rel="nofollow">https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Ap...
Definitely saving it for further use, I sometimes need to have small invisible watchers and I don't want a full fledged app or shell scripts for that.
alin23 · · focus · HN ↗
So even with a local Qwen and Pi you can now say things like:
BetterTouchTool has a great MCP which can create native SwiftUI views and bind them to hotkeys, trackpad gestures etc. It can leverage its immense macOS automation tools and private APIs to let agents do Computer Use.You would need a much more capable coding model to code those tools from scratch and get the same fail-safe logic that the apps have honed over the years.
Like, since MCP, Crank [1] has fully replaced my use of crontab, launchd, scattered scripts I run once a week. Not that it could not do that before, but it's so much simpler now to just describe the automation and have it happen reliably and visible in the UI. The friction is gone.
[0] <a href="https://reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1wkv0dy/mcp_in_macos_apps_are_they_useful_for_you/" rel="nofollow">https://reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1wkv0dy/mcp_in_macos_a...
[1] <a href="https://lowtechguys.com/crank" rel="nofollow">https://lowtechguys.com/crank
asveikau · · focus · HN ↗
This seems like exactly the sort of thing I've done with shell scripts or even makefiles.
kccqzy · · focus · HN ↗
alin23 · · focus · HN ↗
Definitely saving it for further use, I sometimes need to have small invisible watchers and I don't want a full fledged app or shell scripts for that.
kccqzy · · focus · HN ↗