MCP vs CLI: The Token Economics Nobody Talks About
MCP tool calls cost ~1200 tokens each. CLI commands: ~315. Here's when to use which.
MCP tool calls cost ~1200 tokens each (800 for schema + JSON-RPC wrapper + result). A CLI command for the same operation: ~315 tokens. Even unfamiliar CLIs with --help lookups come in at ~515. That’s 2–4x cheaper per call — and it compounds when you’re running agents all day.
The rule is simple: CLI where you can, MCP where you need a persistent connection. Browser automation, Figma canvas, real-time monitoring — MCP makes sense. One-shot request/response like creating a PR, deploying, or fetching meeting data — CLI wins every time.
That said — MCP is more mature and has a bigger ecosystem. If your users prefer MCP, ship MCP. Meet people where they are.
Why This Matters to Me
I’m building my own AIOS (story for another post) and needed to cut token overhead everywhere. Read AI has an MCP server — it works. But I built a CLI that gives you the same data without the middleware. All your meeting intelligence from terminal — feed it into scripts, cron jobs, your own agents.
Ships with an AI agent skill, or write your own on top.
The Bigger Picture
Not just me thinking this. Perplexity’s CTO is moving from MCP to API+CLI. YC CEO shared 28 Claude Code skills — zero MCP. 20K stars in the first week.
The pattern is clear: agents that operate through CLIs are leaner, faster, and cheaper to run. MCP has its place — but it’s not everywhere.