@agentic.james: I deleted all my MCP servers and replaced them with CLI tools, and saved an average of 40% of my context window. Its also faster, because when Claude Code uses an MCP tool a bunch of extra JSON schema gets injected into context, but a CLI tool dynamically generates a bash command that costs about 10x less tokens with no JSON parsing overhead on every call. CLI tools are also way easier for agents to build themselves around any API, theres repos like CLI-anything and open-CLI that turn any website or software into a CLI your agent can call. While replacing mine I built a repo of 30+ CLI tools that replace the common MCP servers, plus skills that teach your agent to use them. That plus a full Claude Code fundamentals course is in my community. Link in bio.

agentic.james

Open In TikTok:

Region: US

Sunday 14 June 2026 05:07:39 GMT

2870

123

Music

Download

No Watermark .mp4 (9.55MB) No Watermark(HD) .mp4 (6.68MB) Watermark .mp4 (8.61MB) Music .mp3

Comments

VZJQQ :

Wait, Not every mcp can be replaced by a cli? Can you show it in practice?

2026-06-14 08:32:37

BRAUN :

Just ssh through a python script bro, just use a PAT token it’s totally secure

2026-06-14 12:58:45

lillyflowers :

how do you tell it to do cli vs mcp?

2026-06-14 13:02:41

Graham Billington :

You should check out RTK as well

2026-06-16 08:27:34

John McLaughlin :

The real hack: 1. create local clients of the tools you actually need inside your repo. 2. Use FastMCP to create a custom MCP for your repo that has access to the local clients.

2026-06-17 00:02:28

LARP Lore :

Do you know how hardware works tho?

2026-06-28 15:48:42

Thomas Paine112 :

I do mostly all CLI and I jam on Opus 4.8 all day and never hit my limit. I actually CLI to a custom cloud linux I built and can hit anything I need from there. This is the way.

2026-06-28 16:26:26

Sam :

it's not a great strategy. having minimal info can cause it to dig less. a combination and properly setup mCP is going to provide a layer a more stateful or auth handling surface better. CLIs require prompts to explain how they work vs schema for mCP and knowing how to parse the model in and out is locked in on MCP not on CLI. so for quick stateless things, CLI is ok, but not really worth switching to just yet, I believe they will be fading out almost as fast as they came in.

2026-06-29 19:24:34

Kevin Hoff :

I like it.

2026-06-30 04:00:07

To see more videos from user @agentic.james, please go to the Tikwm homepage.