[electroly]

I saw you were downvoted and could not understand why, so I'm both upvoting and replying. This is all correct. MCP is, realistically speaking, the extension API for Claude Desktop and Cursor. It's really cool if you do want to extend those apps, but that's all it's for. The article in this case is really confusing and unnecessary.

[westoncb]

This is mistaken. It was effectively true until recently but all kinds of people are building things with it now. This article is likely on HN today because there has been a surge of general interest lately. Here's another example: https://github.com/block/goose. MCP servers are a bit heavyweight but most common case is probably using those developed and/or hosted by others. Clients (e.g. Cursor, Claude Desktop) on the other hand will likely be widespread before long.

[electroly]

My involvement level here is "I'm deep into the implementation and use of my own MCP server," I very much already knew about Goose. I don't think OP or I made our point clear here if you're seeing Goose as a counterargument. Goose is just another MCP client like Cursor and Claude Desktop and MCP is, indeed, its extension API. As OP said, if you are writing your own app that interacts directly with a model API, rather than using a generic app that specifically offers AI agent capability with an extension API, then you'll need to use the model's function calling capability directly. MCP is a very thin layer on top specifically for these agent apps.

[westoncb]

I was correcting this: "MCP is, realistically speaking, the extension API for Claude Desktop and Cursor".