I made MCP cheaper
https://kanyilmaz.me/2026/02/23/cli-vs-mcp.html
https://clihub.org/
skills are unstructured. MCP is structured.
You don't want stripe skill. You want stripe MCP of CLI to interact with. When stripe does an update you want to have it.
I didn't go into technical details or anything. Just laid the most important use case that skills cannot be sufficient
I guess my thinking way is similar to LLMs, has clear structure.
I used to have more grammar issues, that LLMs fix, but the high level outline etc. are actually how I think about it. If it's not, I modify it
It still needs to do discovery (--help etc.), always gets the job done
I was actually thinking if I should support daemons just to support playwright. Now I don't have a use case for it
Regardless, most MCPs are dumping. I know Cloudflare MCP is amazing but other 1000 useful MCPs are not.
https://github.com/thellimist/thellimist.github.io/blob/mast...
https://github.com/thellimist/thellimist.github.io/blob/mast...
I dump a voice message, then blog comes out. Then I modify a bunch of things, and iterate 1-2 hours to get it right
Official MCPs are trusted. Official MCPs CLIs are trusted.
My use cases are almost all 3rd party integrations.
Have you seen any improvements converting on MCPs that require persistency into CLI?
Compared both
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TL;DR CLIHUB compiles MCP servers into portable, self-contained binaries — think of it like a compiler. Best for distribution, CI, and environments where you can't run a daemon.
mcpshim is a runtime bridge — think of it like a local proxy. Best for developers juggling many MCP servers locally, especially when paired with LLM agents that benefit from persistent connections and lightweight aliases.
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https://cdn.zappy.app/b908e63a442179801e406b01cf412433.png (table comparison)
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CLIHub
- written in go
- zero-dependency binaries
- cross-compilation built-in (works on all platforms)
- supports OAuth2 w/ PKCE, S2S, Google SA, API key, basic, bearer. Can be extended further
MCPorter
- TS
- huge dependency list
- runtime dependency on bun
- Auth supports OAuth + basic token
- Has many features like SDK, daemons (for certain MCPs), auto config discovery etc.
MCPorter is more complete tbh. Has many nice to have features for advanced use cases.
My use case is simple. Does it generate a CLI that works? Mainly oauth is the blocker since that logic needs to be custom implemented to the CLI.
I didn't release the website yet. I'll remove the link
LLM only know `linear` tool exists.
I ask "get me the comments in the last issue"
Next call LLM does is
`linear --help 2>&1 | grep -i -E "search|list.issue|get.issue")` then `linear list-issues --raw '{"limit": 3}' -o json 2>&1 | head -80)` then `linear list-comments --issue-id "abc1ceae-aaaa-bbbb-9aaa-6bef0325ebd0" 2>&1)`
So even the --help has filtering by default. Current models are pretty good
https://kanyilmaz.me/2026/02/23/cli-vs-mcp.html
https://clihub.org/
What is the purpose of this particular approach?
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Haystack helps dev teams get incredibly good at delivering software. We do that using analytics and alerts pulled straight from Github.
Haystack is a fast growing early startup. From 0 to 1.5 years companies like Microsoft, The Economist, Cameo, Indiegogo and many more are using Haystack daily!
We are looking for:
* Full Stack Engineer: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/haystack/jobs/znulCUM-....
* Account Executive: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/haystack/jobs/40uM4uM-...
Interested? Please send me an email at [email protected]
Haystack helps dev teams get incredibly good at delivering software. We do that using analytics and alerts pulled straight from Github.
Haystack is a fast growing early startup. From 0 to 1.5 years companies like Microsoft, The Economist, Cameo, Indiegogo and many more are using Haystack daily!
We are looking for:
* Full Stack Engineer: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/haystack/jobs/znulCUM-...
* Sr. Sales Executive: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/haystack/jobs/40uM4uM-...
Interested? Please send me an email at [email protected]