alt Hacker NewsAs someone who does both, I have to say that the only reason I am writing MCP stuff is that all the user-side tools seem to support it.
And the moment we, as an industry, settle on something sane, I will rip out the whole thing and adopt that, because MCP brings _nothing_ to the table that I could not do with a "proper" API using completely standard tooling.
Then again, I have run the whole gamut since the EDI and Enterprise JavaBeans era, XML-RPC, etc. - the works. Our industry loves creating new API surfaces and semantics without a) properly designing them from the start and b) aiming for a level of re-use that is neither pathological nor wasteful of developer time, so I'm used to people from "new fields of computing" ignoring established wisdom and rolling their own API "conventions".
But, again, the instant something less contrived and more integratable comes along, I will gleefully rm -rf the entire thing and move over, and many people in the enterprise field feel exactly the same - we've spent decades builting API management solutions with proper controls, and MCP bodges all of that up.
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Looks like the GraphQL beginnings, it feels fresh now and the AI products kind of nudge everything that way but fundamentally the main point is being able to package an API into a standard format, with documented endpoints, support for authentication, and different transports.
Nothing that couldn't be solved by a well designed REST API with Swagger documentation (and authentication, and websockets), but by being the same interface for all APIs it reduces the burden on the LLM.
I am looking into ACP and it looks something more solid compared to MCP which is like an intern project. What do you think?
> because MCP brings _nothing_ to the table that I could not do with a "proper" API using completely standard tooling.
This is what drives me crazy and has stopped my tinkering with MCP in its tracks: what is the point? It's not bringing anything new. It's usually not easier to set-up than what you're describing. Or, if you absolutely must have an LLM in the mix, normal function calling does just as well as MCP.
It's a real, "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills" moment: there's all this hype and bluster and "wow look at this", but there is no "this". Everyone's talking about "it can do" and "it'll be amazing when", but there's nothing actually built and present and ready that is impressive.
> And the moment we, as an industry, settle on something sane, I will rip out the whole thing and adopt that, because MCP brings _nothing_ to the table that I could not do with a "proper" API using completely standard tooling.
100%. I suppose I understand MCP for user-side tooling but people seem to be reinventing the wheel because they don't understand REST. making REST requests with a well defined schema from an LLM is not all that hard.