> The way we like to think about MCP at this point is that it should be much closer to OpenAPI with intelligent tool discovery. That means tools should return structured data and tools should be discoverable by their documentation and description.
OpenAPI is “intelligent tool discovery” (whatever that is). OpenAPI literally “returns structured data” and is “discoverable by their documentation and description.”
Just once, I’d like to see someone explain MCP in terms that suggest they have any idea what they are talking about.
I think it's fair to say I know quite a bit about MCP (I built a company on it) so I'll take a crack at this. TLDR: MCP is an Oauth protocol now
MCP started out as this sudo browser replacement protocol for AI integrations. Similar to how a browser opens tabs and loads in JS, the idea was that MCP hosts load in MCPs and interact with them that way. Thus the original spec shipped as a stateful server client protocol with prompts, resources, a bunch of other stuff... and tools (the only thing anyone really ended up using). If you want to learn more about the original idea behind it, the creators did a pretty good podcast where they go through the conception and their design partnership with the Zed guys.
It became pretty clear early on that that way people wanted to use it was basically "I heard if I download this thing called an MCP the AI can manage my Jira tickets". so it's been almost 2 years now of rolling back all the opinions of the original protocol (statefulness, esoteric features) and bringing it closer to OpenAPI + JSONRPC + OAuth. Since the July spec release, you will start seeing alot more of this: <a href="https://redocly.com/docs/realm/content/api-docs/openapi-extensions/x-mcp" rel="nofollow">https://redocly.com/docs/realm/content/api-docs/openapi-exte...
The biggest "win" of MCP is that the hype behind it let the Oauth guys swoop and use it to formalize a bunch of Oauth specs into a coherent story for API auth.
abtinf · · focus · HN ↗
OpenAPI is “intelligent tool discovery” (whatever that is). OpenAPI literally “returns structured data” and is “discoverable by their documentation and description.”
Just once, I’d like to see someone explain MCP in terms that suggest they have any idea what they are talking about.
miguelspizza · · focus · HN ↗
MCP started out as this sudo browser replacement protocol for AI integrations. Similar to how a browser opens tabs and loads in JS, the idea was that MCP hosts load in MCPs and interact with them that way. Thus the original spec shipped as a stateful server client protocol with prompts, resources, a bunch of other stuff... and tools (the only thing anyone really ended up using). If you want to learn more about the original idea behind it, the creators did a pretty good podcast where they go through the conception and their design partnership with the Zed guys.
It became pretty clear early on that that way people wanted to use it was basically "I heard if I download this thing called an MCP the AI can manage my Jira tickets". so it's been almost 2 years now of rolling back all the opinions of the original protocol (statefulness, esoteric features) and bringing it closer to OpenAPI + JSONRPC + OAuth. Since the July spec release, you will start seeing alot more of this: <a href="https://redocly.com/docs/realm/content/api-docs/openapi-extensions/x-mcp" rel="nofollow">https://redocly.com/docs/realm/content/api-docs/openapi-exte...
The biggest "win" of MCP is that the hype behind it let the Oauth guys swoop and use it to formalize a bunch of Oauth specs into a coherent story for API auth.
Otterly99 · · focus · HN ↗