MCP connects the LLM to the APIs, which can be consulted with "tool calls." I'm talking about integrating the software I produce (with LLM assistance) to APIs. Traditionally, this is a nightmare given poor documentation. LLMs have helped me cut through the noise.
I built an MCP server to speak WHOIS/RDAP so I could have Claude give me better domain name suggestions that weren't already taken. It can also be used in LLM-enabled applications (provided that the model is "tool calling" and that there's an orchestrator).
In principle, MCP servers can be created for just about any OAuth-protected API. However, you still need to create the server, and this is where the usage I'm talking about shines: when working on the MCP server, an LLM can be quite helpful in getting the right APIs integrated.
The same goes for other development that doesn't need an LLM context built-in. If I wanted to sync two calendars, for instance, I wouldn't build an MCP that speaks CalDav and Exchange and then let it loose (though this so-called agentic workflow is becoming more popular); I'd want to build software with an LLM's help that can speak both protocols by having it generate code to handle whatever OAuth tokens and scopes are necessary and then help me deploy the thing.
