Comment by daxfohl

1 day ago

I'd expect "local MCP servers" will be generally installed as part of something else. Photoshop, or Outlook, or whatever could come with a local MCP server to allow chat clients to automate them. Maybe printer drivers or other hardware would do similar. I don't think there's much reason to install a cloud service MCP server to run locally; you'd just use the one provided in the cloud.

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daxfohl

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Garlef  14 hours ago

Interesting thought.

But maybe the companies would actually like to at least pipe the communication throught the cloud to get all the usage data. Here's one possible architecture:

local chat client

  - talks to cloud LLM
  - talks to local MCP servers

local MCP server provided by company

  - connects to company cloud (this lets the company collect usage data)
  - forwards tasks to the cloud

local tool (for example photoshop)

  - connects to company cloud to get a users tasks
  - executes the tasks (this lets the company use the users hardware, saving cloud costs)

  • daxfohl  11 hours ago

    Hmm, in that example the MCP server is just a thin api wrapper though, so it wouldn't change anything by running locally, right? Like I could see where maybe a TikTok MCP server would benefit from running locally since that would allow it to expose a camera api, but I can't think of anything you could do with a local Airbnb MCP server that you couldn't do with a cloud one.

    Nefariously, I guess since these things would be running in the background continuously, that would provide another avenue for companies to spy on you, so that may be a reason companies create local mcps even if there's no other reason to.

    • daxfohl  11 hours ago

      Well maybe a local Airbnb MCP could have access to your phone to call the host. Or to your wallet to pay.

      That may make more sense than having a separate "wallet MCP server" running locally and having the LLM coordinate the transaction. While the premise of MCP is to allow LLMs to do such things, idk if I want an LLM to be hallucinating with my credit card.