MCP feels like the 1903 Wright Flyer right now.

MCP is a novel technology that will probably transform our world, provides numerous advantages, comes with some risks, and requires skill to operate effectively.

Sure, none of the underlying technologies (JSON-RPC, etc.) are particularly novel. But the capability negotiation handshake built into the protocol is pretty darn powerful. It's a novel use of existing stuff.

I spent years in & around the domain of middleware and integrations. There's something really special about the promise of universal interoperability MCP offers.

Just like early-aviation, there are going to be tons of risks. But the upside is pretty compelling and worth the risks. You could sit around waiting for the kinks to get worked out or dive in and help figure out those kinks.

In fact, it seems I'm the first person to seriously draw attention to the protocol's lack of timeout coordination, which is a serious problem[0]. I'm just a random person in the ecosystem who got fed up with timeout issues and realized it's up to all of us to fix the problems as we see them. So there's still plenty of opportunity out there to jump in and contribute.

Kudos to this team for responsibly contributing what they found. These risks are inherent in any new technology.

[0]: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/modelcontextprotocol...

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troupo 4 days ago | parent [-]

Neither the protocol, nor the technologies it uses, nor the capabilities it exposes are new or even novel.

What is novel is the "yolo vibe code protocol with complete disregard to any engineering practices, and not even reading at least something about that was there before". That is, it's world's first widely used vibe-coded protocol.

That's why you have one-way protocols awkwardly wrapped to support two-way communication (are they on their third already?). That's why auth is an afterthought. That's why there's no timeout coordination.

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electric_muse 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Agreed. I think most can agree that the protocol itself leaves a lot to be desired.

But the idea itself is compelling: documentation + invocation in a bi-directional protocol. And enough real players have thrown their weight behind making this thing work that it probably some day will.

I don't understand fully the "it's immature so it's worthy or ridicule" rationale so much. Don't most good things start out really rough around the edges? Why does MCP get so much disdain?

	▲	blcknight 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		The problem is the roll out as the bees knees by anthropic, when its.. just some JSON slop without a ton of careful thought behind it. I think it should be mostly thrown away and start over with an MCPv2 that has first class auth, RBAC/identity, error handling, quotas, human-in-the-loop controls, and more.

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4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

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