Haha. Nobody ever cared that some humans preferred to use services via a CLI versus GUI. But now that "AI" needs it, CLI programs and APIs get released left and right :D
It’s not that nobody cared, it’s that the cost of building and maintaining CLIs, relative to the usage they got, often didn’t make economic sense. In fact, this is the first time I’ve seen someone want to use Slack via a CLI, not a TUI, an actual CLI. APIs, on the other hand, had plenty of real usage and made business sense, so most services offered them.
With AI, two things have changed: (1) the cost of building a CLI on top of a documented API has dropped a lot, and (2) there’s a belief that “designed for agents” CLIs will enable new kinds of usage that weren’t practical before and that will move the needle on the bottom line.
And now, since bloated agent harnesses like Claude Code are the hot thing, AI promoters are calling MCP obsolete! (No need for HN's summer 2025 fad. Just write CLI tools!)
IMTDb|20 days ago
With AI, two things have changed: (1) the cost of building a CLI on top of a documented API has dropped a lot, and (2) there’s a belief that “designed for agents” CLIs will enable new kinds of usage that weren’t practical before and that will move the needle on the bottom line.
usefulposter|21 days ago
And now, since bloated agent harnesses like Claude Code are the hot thing, AI promoters are calling MCP obsolete! (No need for HN's summer 2025 fad. Just write CLI tools!)
theanonymousone|21 days ago