When MCP Is the Wrong Choice
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When MCP Is the Wrong Choice
MCP isn’t always the answer. Three situations where something else is better:
When you’re better off with a CLI tool. If you already have a good command-line interface for something, an MCP server just adds a layer. I use the kit CLI directly from Claude Code’s terminal access rather than building an MCP server around it. Same for obsidian, reminders, and a few others — the CLI is the server.
When a direct API call is simpler. For one-off data needs, you can often just have Claude write a bash command that calls an API with curl. No server needed, no configuration required. This is especially true for things you’ll only do occasionally — the overhead of installing and maintaining a server isn’t worth it for a task you do twice a month.
When the latency matters. MCP tools add a round-trip: Claude decides to call the tool, the server executes, the result returns, Claude continues. For operations where speed matters or where you’ll be doing many calls in a sequence, think about whether that overhead is acceptable. Usually it is. Sometimes it isn’t.