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I still prefer MCP over skills

david.coffee

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Re: I still prefer MCP over skills

#151

Post by lukewarm707 »

usrbinbash wrote: post #88
TheTaytay wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep getting hung up on securely storing and using secrets with CLI vs MCP. With MCP, you can run the server before you run the agent, so the agent never even has the keys in its environment. That way. If the agent decides to install the wrong npm package that auto dumps every secret it can find, you are less likely to have it sitting around. I haven’t figured out a good way to guarantee that with CLIs.

And in a skill, I can store the secret in the skill itself, or a secure storage the skill accesses, and the agent never gets to see the secret. Sure, if I want my agents to use naked curl on the CLI, they need to know secrets. But that's not how I build my tools.

what stops the agent from echoing the secure storage?

what i see is that you give it a pass manager, it thinks, "oh, this doesn't work. let me read the password" and of course it sends it off to openai.

Re: I still prefer MCP over skills

#152

Post by Oras »

_pdp_ wrote: post #144

Scanning through the comments here I am almost certain the majority of people in this thread run coding agents on-device. Skills that access already available resources is then more convenient and you can easily make the argument that it is more agronomic. That being said, majority of users on this planet don't use AI agents like that. They go to ChatGPT or equivalent. MCP in this case is the obvious choice because i…

> majority of users on this planet don't use AI agents like that

Source?

Re: I still prefer MCP over skills

#153

Post by ghywertelling »

egeozcan wrote: post #27
woeirua wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, but there are still many environments where an LLM will not have access to a CLI. In those situations, skills calling CLI tools to hook into APIs are DOA.

What are the advantages of using an environment that doesn't have access to a CLI, only having to run/maintain your own server, or pay someone else to maintain that server, so AI has access to tools? Can't you just use AI in the said server?

[dead]

Re: I still prefer MCP over skills

#154

Post by dugmartin »

hnlmorg wrote: post #87
bikelang wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think many of us have been burned by the absolutely awful and unstable JIRA MCP and found that skills using `acli` actually work and view the rest of the MCP space thru that lens. Lots of early - and current! - MCP implementations were bad. So it’s an uphill battle to rebuild reputation.

Can you share more about acli? Literally my biggest use case for MCP is Jira and Confuence

It is available here:

https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/acli/guides/introducti...

It has a pretty discoverable cli syntax (at least for Claude). I use it in my custom skills to pull Jira story info when creating and reviewing specs.

Re: I still prefer MCP over skills

#155

Post by xyzzy123 »

prohobo wrote: post #138
antirez wrote: post #108

Don't focus on what you prefer: it does not matter. Focus on what tool the LLM requires to do its work in the best way. MCP adds friction, imagine doing yourself the work using the average MCP server. However, skills alone are not sufficient if you want, for instance, creating the ability for LLMs to instrument a complicated system. Work in two steps: 1. Ask the LLM to build a tool, under your guide and specification…

I feel like the MCP conversation conflates too many things and everyone has strong assumptions that aren't always correct. The fundamental issue is between one-off vs. persistent access across sessions: - If you need to interact with a local app in a one-off session, then use CLI. - If you need to interact with an online service in a one-off session, then use their API. - If you need to interact with a local app in a…

My main complaint with mcp is that it doesn't compose well with other tools or code. Like if I want to pull 1000 jira tickets and do some custom analysis I can do that with cli or api just fine, but not mcp.

Re: I still prefer MCP over skills

#156

Post by Jaxkr »

Oras wrote: post #152
_pdp_ wrote: post #144

Scanning through the comments here I am almost certain the majority of people in this thread run coding agents on-device. Skills that access already available resources is then more convenient and you can easily make the argument that it is more agronomic. That being said, majority of users on this planet don't use AI agents like that. They go to ChatGPT or equivalent. MCP in this case is the obvious choice because i…

> majority of users on this planet don't use AI agents like that Source?

Common sense. Most users are not running Claude Code or an on-device coding agent.

They're using ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude on the web.

Re: I still prefer MCP over skills

#157

Post by lukewarm707 »

Aperocky wrote: post #38

Occams Razor spares none. Everything will go to the simplest and most convenient, often both, despite the resistance of the complexity lovers. Sorry MCP, you are not as simple as CLI/skill/combination, and no, you are not more secure just because you are buried under 3 level of spaghetti. There are no reason for you to exist, just like Copilot. I don't just wish, but know you'll go into obscurity like IE6.

i use mcp for security. you can have an airgapped agent that can still call online tools. for example, web search.

however it can't get infected because there is no internet access.

the worst you can do is put your secrets in the web search box

Re: I still prefer MCP over skills

#159

Post by prohobo »

xyzzy123 wrote: post #155
prohobo wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like the MCP conversation conflates too many things and everyone has strong assumptions that aren't always correct. The fundamental issue is between one-off vs. persistent access across sessions: - If you need to interact with a local app in a one-off session, then use CLI. - If you need to interact with an online service in a one-off session, then use their API. - If you need to interact with a local app in a…

My main complaint with mcp is that it doesn't compose well with other tools or code. Like if I want to pull 1000 jira tickets and do some custom analysis I can do that with cli or api just fine, but not mcp.

Right, that feels like something you'd do with a script and some API calls.

MCP is more for a back and forth communication between agent and app/service, or for providing tool/API awareness during other tasks. Like MCP for Jira would let the AI know it can grab tickets from Jira when needed while working on other things.

I guess it's more like: the MCP isn't for us - it's for the agent to decide when to use.

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