CLI vs MCP AI agents need to talk to external tools, but should they use CLI or MCP? Both call the same APIs under the hood. The difference is how the agent inv... (opens in new tab)

CLI vs MCP<br><br>AI agents need to talk to external tools, but should they use CLI or MCP?<br><br>Both call the same APIs under the hood. The difference is how the agent invokes them.<br><br>Here's a side-by-side comparison across 6 dimensions:<br><br>1. Token Cost: MCP loads the full JSON schema (tool names, descriptions, field types) into the context window before any work begins. CLI needs no schema, so saves more context window.<br>2. Native Knowledge: LLMs were trained on billions of CL...