I use the GitLab CLI (glab) extensively, because it is so much better than the (official) GitLab MCP. I just run `glab auth login` before launching Claude Code, then tell CC to use `glab` to communicate with the GitLab API.

When using the MCP, I have to do a whole OAuth browser-launch process and even then I am only limited to the 9-10 tools that they've shipped it with so far.

See also “95% of MCP Servers are useless”. https://youtu.be/7baGJ1bC9zE?si=ShyLg2mHWwbBW1DS

tl;dr AI-powered assistants can already use command line tools.