# hacker-news 44

Published articles for hacker-news 44.

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## Why MCP remains useful for controlled agent access to external services

DevFeed: [Why MCP remains useful for controlled agent access to external services](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/mcp-was-always-a-bad-idea-57665.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/20/hn-49779718/>)

Author: Simon Willison

Published: 2026-09-20T20:24:41Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Simon Willison's Weblog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/simon-willison-s-weblog.md>)

Topics: [Model Context Protocol](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/model-context-protocol.md>), [audit](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/audit.md>), [Authentication](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/authentication.md>), [Claude Code](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/claude-code.md>), [API](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/api.md>), [codex](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/codex.md>), [OpenClaw](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/openclaw.md>), [Terminal](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/terminal.md>)

Tags: [api](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/api.md>), [audit](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/audit.md>), [authentication](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/authentication.md>), [claude-code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/claude-code.md>), [codex](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/codex.md>), [coding-agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/coding-agents.md>), [hacker-news](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hacker-news.md>), [hacker-news-44](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hacker-news-44.md>), [mcp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mcp.md>), [model-context-protocol](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/model-context-protocol.md>), [model-context-protocol-36](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/model-context-protocol-36.md>), [openclaw](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/openclaw.md>)

### AI overview

The commentary argues that MCP remains valuable for agents operating with controlled access rather than unrestricted internet access. It highlights service permissions, authentication without direct API-key exposure, user connection flows, and audit logging.

### Source excerpt

My comment on MCP was always a bad idea? -- Hacker News. This article entirely misses the value that MCP brings today. Sure, there's almost no reason to use MCPs if you are running a full-blown terminal agent (Claude Code, Codex, Meta Muse, OpenClaw etc) with unfettered internet access - just let it call APIs directly. If you want to operate something that's less YOLO than that, you'll find yourself wanting: Control over exactly which external services it can access A way to handle authentication that doesn't allow the agent to directly access API keys A sensible UI to allow users to connect and authenticate further services Strong audit logging for what's going on MCP makes all of that so much easier to provide. Thinking MCP is obsolete because full coding agents don't need it misses out on all of the other things we might want to build. Tags: hacker-news, model-context-protocol