> CLI tools don’t have standardized auth
EPERM, POSIX ACLs and execute bits.
> CLI tools need to access your secrets in your .env
They can access whichever secret store you want. There are dozens of projects offering valid solutions nowadays for the local tool call space, and they’re equally useful in this scenario.
> CLI tools don’t have auditing and telemetry
They’ve had it for much longer than MCP.
> A nightmare in terms of security
We know how to secure shells. Git over SSH is a hardened, public shell that works all the way up to GitHub scale. You just offer a limited toolset. No escape, unless there’s a vulnerability, which is just as likely with MCP.
> Very costly
It’s a rounding error in comparison to token costs.