MCPs have a larger impact beyond the terminal - you can use it with ChatGPT, Claude Web, n8n, LibreChat, and it comes with considerations for auth, resources, and now even UI (e.g., apps-sdk from OpenAI is on MCP).

If we're considering primarily coding workflows and CLI-based agents like Claude Code, I think it's true that CLI tools can provide a ton of value. But once we go beyond that to other roles - e.g., CRM work, sales, support, operations, finance; MCP-based tools are going to have a better form factor.

I think Skills go hand-in-hand with MCPs, it's not a competition between the two and they have different purposes.

I am interested though, when the python code in Skills can call MCPs directly via the interpreter... that is the big unlock (something we have tried and found to work really well).

Yeah, the biggest advantages MCP has over terminal tooling is that MCP works without needing a full blown sandboxed Linux style environment - and MCP can also work with much less capable models.

You can drive one or two MCPs off a model that happily runs on a laptop (or even a phone). I wouldn't trust those models to go read a file and then successfully make a bunch of curl requests!

Being able to integrate LLMs with the rest of the software/physical world is pretty cool, and its all powered through natural language.

Were also at the point where the LLMs can generate MCP servers so you can pretty much generate completely new functionalities with ease.