Tools are literally function calls with extra steps. MCPs are interpreters of those function calls.
Same stuff, different name - only thing that's changed is that Anthropic got people to agree on RPC protocol.
It's not like it's a new idea, either. MCP isn't much different from SOAP or DCOM - but it works where the older approaches didn't, because LLMs are able to understand API definitions and natural-language documentation, and then map between those APIs (and user input) on the fly.
behnamoh|4 months ago
TeMPOraL|4 months ago
Same stuff, different name - only thing that's changed is that Anthropic got people to agree on RPC protocol.
It's not like it's a new idea, either. MCP isn't much different from SOAP or DCOM - but it works where the older approaches didn't, because LLMs are able to understand API definitions and natural-language documentation, and then map between those APIs (and user input) on the fly.