What If You Don’t Need MCP at All?
Source: https://mariozechner.at/posts/2025-12-12-what-if-you-dont-need-mcp-at-all/ Author: mariozechner.at (Mario Zechner) Date: 2025-12-12
Summary
Mario Zechner (same author as the slowing down piece the same day) argues that the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is over-engineered for most use cases. Simple function calling often suffices.
Key Claims
- MCP (Model Context Protocol): Anthropic’s standard for giving AI assistants access to external data sources and tools.
- The MCP premise: standardize how tools connect to AI assistants so tools can be reused across different AI systems.
- Zechner’s critique: for most individual developers, custom function calling is simpler and just as effective.
- When MCP makes sense: when you’re building tools that many different AI systems should use.
- When it’s overkill: when you’re building a single AI application with a fixed set of tools.
- The abstraction cost: MCP adds indirection and complexity. Only worthwhile if the reusability benefit is realized.
Concepts
- Coding Agents — tool integration architecture for agents
- Context Engineering — tools are context for agents