ejholmes

6 ms·

1.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
I think that's a fair argument. I'd push back a bit on that being unique to MCP. Agent browser ( https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser ) handles persistent sessions just fine as a CLI.
2.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
Silly. All it needs is docs. No need to overcomplicate it.
3.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
Funny. Dealing with Kubernetes is my day job, and I can be equally critical of it. Pointing out absurdities is how we make things better, and that’s ok.
4.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
I always get a kick out of seeing MCP wrappers around CLI’s.
5.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
Great read. Thanks for sharing. 100% agree, `—json | jq` is where it’s at.
6.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
You're right, but it still doesn't mean MCP was a good design even in that space. We could've done better.
7.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
But they're not token efficient. Take the terraform example from the post. Plan JSON is massive. You're not saving tokens by using a Terraform MCP and shoving an entire plan into context. Composition allows for efficient token use
8.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
> both are a method of tool calling, it does not matter which format the LLM uses for tool calling as long as it provides the same capabilities. MCP tool calls aren't composable. Not the same capabilities. Big difference.
9.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
Neato! https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser is a similar take here, and much better than the playwright MCP.
10.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
Thanks for reading! And yes, if anyone takes anything away from this, it's around composition of tools. The other arguments in the post are debatable, but not that one.
11.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
Author here! Biggest difference is composition. MCP tools don't chain (there's people trying to fix that, but it's still true right now).
12.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
I get it. This is coming from a place where I see MCP's being adopted, where CLI is (in my opinion) better. Particularly where you're already in a CLI environment, and tool composition is necessary. I'm sure there's plen
13.
by ejholmes 7mo ago
Hi friends! Author here. This blew up a bit, so some words. The article title and content is intentionally provocative. It’s just to get people thinking. My real views are probably a lot more balanced. I totally get there’s a space where MC
14.
When does MCP make sense vs CLI?(ejholmes.github.io)
447 points by ejholmes 7mo ago|284 comments
15.
by ejholmes 7y ago
This will hopefully become obsolete in the near future. If you're on a recent MacBook (with TouchID), using the current version of Chrome, and using a website that supports the new WebAuthn standard (e.g. GitHub) then you get this for
16.
by ejholmes 7y ago
Obviously, depends on your threat model. I'd argue that being physically coerced ends up being a pretty low risk for most people. If you're just looking for something better than storing private key material on a hard disc, sekey
17.
by ejholmes 7y ago
If you have a newer MacBook with TouchID, you can get similar benefits using https://github.com/sekey/sekey . Arguably better, because access is backed by biometrics (TouchID) so it's "something you are"
18.
by ejholmes 8y ago
I know this was probably well intentioned, but I can't shake the irony of how overly complex and over-engineered this is. If you're just starting out, please, please, please don't do this.
19.
by ejholmes 8y ago
It's a pretty scary prospect, to the point that I have to imagine it's already happening to some degree. If a nation state wants a backdoor, what better way than to bribe the cash-strapped OSS maintainer of that little project tha
20.
by ejholmes 8y ago
It’s a pretty unfortunate state of affairs. Google/Microsoft/Amazon should be throwing money at these projects. It’s in their best interest if they use it.
21.
by ejholmes 8y ago
General rule of thumb for secure package distribution: 1. Is the identifier mutable? Make sure it points to a content addressable identifier (SHA2), and sign that link. 2. Is it a content addressable identifier? Nothing to do. When it comes
22.
by ejholmes 8y ago
I wrote more about this in https://twitter.com/vesirin/status/1026807849970614273?s=21 . Vulnerabilities in package managers is a scary thing.
23.
by ejholmes 8y ago
If you have a recent MacBook, use https://github.com/ntrippar/sekey for SSH keys. Private key is stored in the built-in HSM (Secure Enclave) and access is controlled by biometrics (TouchID). You can do the same with a
24.
by ejholmes 8y ago
How does this differ from the existing "Message deletion/retention" feature that was present before this? Did the existing feature delete messages, but not keys? Is the old feature and the new feature combined, or are they st
25.
by ejholmes 9y ago
> Most important concept #1: DAG Yes! Thank you! This needs to be banged into peoples heads when talking about build systems. Every time you add an edge, you're automating an otherwise manual task. Very important realization.
26.
by ejholmes 9y ago
Been using (and paying for) Dashlane for a couple years now. I love it. The things I like the most: 1. Supports TouchID on my newer MacBook. 2. Supports generating OTP's, stored alongside the credentials. Not sure if the competitors ha
27.
by ejholmes 9y ago
Also https://github.com/remind101/ssm-env (pretty similar)
28.
by ejholmes 9y ago
The first example uses recursive make, breaking the graph :(. I'm not saying you can't use make (we did use make before we switched to walk), it's just more painful for non C/C++ build systems. All we really want from a
29.
by ejholmes 9y ago
https://github.com/ejholmes/walk can do most of this FWIW.
30.
by ejholmes 9y ago
> That's probably very subjective, I find JavaScript, C++, PHP or Perl much worse :-) Oh definitely. I actually like Makefile's, but in my experience, more teams have a deep familiarity with some programming language, than with

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