Please explain: why bothering with MCPs if I can call almost anything via CLI?

Reddit r/LocalLLaMA / 3/26/2026

💬 OpinionIdeas & Deep AnalysisTools & Practical Usage

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Key Points

The post questions the practical value of MCP and tools like MCPorter when users can already trigger actions through existing CLIs (e.g., `gh issue create`).
It highlights confusion about how a standard protocol plus an adapter layer differs from direct command execution interfaces.
The core ask is for a layman explanation of what MCP/MCPorter add beyond what CLIs already provide (especially around AI agent “code execution” workflows).
The author frames the request as clarifying whether MCP addresses a real integration problem or is mostly redundant for some use cases.
Overall, it’s an educational discussion prompt rather than a report of a new release or event.

I've been trying to understand MCP and I got the basic idea. Instead of every AI agent custom integrations integrations for GitHub, AWS etc you have one standard protocol. Makes sense. But!

then I see tools getting popular like this one https://github.com/steipete/mcporter from openclaw creator, and I get confused again! The readme shows stuff like "MCPorter helps you lean into the "code execution" workflows highlighted in Anthropic's Code Execution with MCP"(c) and provides interface like mcporter call github.create_issue title="Bug"

why do I need MCP + MCPorter? (or any other analog) in the middle? What does it actually add that gh issue create doesn't already do?

I'd appreciate someone explain me in layman terms, I used to think I'm on the edge of what's happening in the industry but not I'm a bit confused, seeing problems where there were no problems at all

cheers!

submitted by /u/Atagor
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Please explain: why bothering with MCPs if I can call almost anything via CLI?

Key Points

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