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Public story · 2026-03-18 · source-backed
Simon Willison quantified it: the GitHub MCP server adds ~23,000 tokens of fixed overhead to every session that loads it. Models already know how to use gh, git, psql, and other CLIs — invoking those directly costs zero context tokens. Rule of thumb: use MCP servers only for tools without CLI equivalents or where structured I/O justifies the overhead. Simon Willison
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Simon Willison released LLM / Shared entities / Same source domain / Shared topic / What happened next / Tension
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Simon Willison uses Claude Code / Shared entities / Same source domain / Shared topic / What happened next / Tension
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OWASP released MCP / Shared entities / Same source domain / Shared topic / Earlier coverage
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Simon Willison uses Claude Code / Shared entities / Shared topic / What happened next
Linked by a graph relationship (Simon Willison uses Claude Code); both cover CLI, CLIs, MCP; overlapping topics (already, clis).
Simon Willison uses Claude Code / Shared entity: Simon Willison / Same source domain / Shared topic / What happened next / Tension
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Simon Willison uses Claude / Shared entities / Shared topic / What happened next / Tension
Linked by a graph relationship (Simon Willison uses Claude); both cover CLI, MCP; overlapping topics (context, server, token).
Simon Willison uses Claude / Shared entities / What happened next / Downstream implication
Linked by a graph relationship (Simon Willison uses Claude); both cover CLI, MCP, Simon Willison; picks up the CLI thread on 2026-07-30.