---
type: source
title: "The MCP Integration EVERYONE is Sleeping On (MCP + Custom AI Agents)"
description: "MCP's real power is unlocked not by MCP-native apps like Claude Desktop or Cursor but by integrating MCP servers directly into your own custom AI agents, which is straightforward with a reusable client that converts MCP tools into your framework's tool format."
youtube_id: soC4n-nKWF8
url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soC4n-nKWF8
slug: the-mcp-integration-everyone-is-sleeping-on-mcp-custom-ai-agents
published: 2025-03-26
duration: "0:21:29"
recency_rank: 106
raw: "../raw/the-mcp-integration-everyone-is-sleeping-on-mcp-custom-ai-agents.md"
tags: [mcp, custom-agents, pydantic-ai, tool-standardization, provider-independence]
created: 2026-07-21
updated: 2026-07-21
---

Cole argues that while MCP-native applications (Claude Desktop, Windsurf, Cursor) make MCP tools easy to use, they are limiting because you cannot build your own front ends, mix MCP tools with your own custom tools, or selectively pull only the tools you want. The far greater payoff comes from wiring MCP servers into agents you build yourself. He demonstrates this with Pydantic AI but stresses the approach is framework-agnostic.

The core deliverable is a reusable `mcp_client.py` that reads a Claude-Desktop-style JSON config, connects to each configured MCP server, lists its tools, and converts each MCP tool into a native Pydantic AI tool (name, description, execute function, and JSON schema for parameters). Because the config format matches Claude Desktop exactly, adding any server from the public MCP servers list is a copy-paste. The contrast is stark: defining a single web-search tool by hand takes dozens of lines, whereas hooking in an MCP server gives an agent many tools in four lines of setup code.

Cole walks through building the client from scratch, calling out the harder parts he learned from Anthropic's official docs and Python SDK, especially graceful resource cleanup so MCP server containers are torn down when the app crashes or exits (something he notes n8n does poorly). He closes on the two big wins of a custom implementation: exposing the agent as a FastAPI endpoint for any front end or app, and custom-filtering tools so you do not bloat the LLM with tools you will never use.

## Concepts covered

- [MCP with Custom Agents](../concepts/mcp-with-custom-agents.md)
- [Tool Standardization (USB-C for AI)](../concepts/tool-standardization.md)
- [Provider Independence](../concepts/provider-independence.md)
- [Build Your Own MCP Server](../concepts/build-your-own-mcp-server.md)
- [Model Context Protocol (MCP)](../concepts/mcp.md)
- [Context Engineering](../concepts/context-engineering.md)
- [Agent as an API Endpoint](../concepts/agent-as-api-endpoint.md)

## Entities

- [MCP (Model Context Protocol)](../entities/tools/mcp.md)
- [Pydantic AI](../entities/tools/pydantic-ai.md)
- [Claude Desktop](../entities/tools/claude-desktop.md)
- [Anthropic](../entities/organizations/anthropic.md)
- [GitHub](../entities/tools/github.md)
- [Cole Medin](../entities/people/cole-medin.md)

## Key moments

- **[0:00:00]** MCP standardizes giving tools to LLMs but MCP-native apps are limiting; the real power is your own agents
- **[0:02:05]** Demo of a custom front end (Live Agent Studio) using the Brave MCP server plus local files and SQLite
- **[0:03:01]** Sources: official MCP client quickstart docs and the Python SDK GitHub example
- **[0:04:16]** Four-step quickstart: copy mcp_client.py, install deps, add servers to JSON config, wire it in Python
- **[0:06:32]** Contrast: a single hand-coded Pydantic AI tool vs the same agent with MCP tools in far less code
- **[0:11:37]** Building the custom MCP client from scratch, including resource cleanup
- **[0:14:26]** Converting an MCP tool into a Pydantic AI tool (execute fn, name, description, JSON schema)
- **[0:18:39]** Ctrl-C crash cleanly tears down the Docker MCP server containers
- **[0:19:24]** Payoffs: FastAPI endpoint for any front end, and custom tool filtering to avoid LLM tool bloat

## Transcript

[Raw transcript](../raw/the-mcp-integration-everyone-is-sleeping-on-mcp-custom-ai-agents.md)
