[cranium]

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.

[hobofan]

> but by being the same interface for all APIs it reduces the burden on the LLM

It doesn't reduce the burden for the LLM, as the LLM isn't the piece of software directly interfacing with the MCP server. It reduced the burden for people building clients that call LLMs and have to convert external interfaces into tool calls etc..

[_heimdall]

You wouldn't even need Swagger if we actually used REST. Swagger is only around because we abandoned REST for RPC.

[zo1]

REST is just like scrum/agile. There is apparently some sort of "standard" but really anything goes and everyone does whatever they want.

[_heimdall]

What do you mean? REST was really clearly defined in Roy Fielding's dissertation when he proposed the term in the first place.

I agree people do whatever they want and call it REST, but that's not because of a lack of definition in what their term.