mcpc (Universal MCP CLI Client) — opportunity to call MCP tools outside Claude conversations

[hjbrandt]

Came across this new tool from Apify: mcpc — Universal MCP CLI Client

The headline feature is token efficiency via dynamic tool discovery, but I think the more interesting angle for PAI builders is programmable MCP access from CLI tooling.

Right now, PAI's Tools/*.ts scripts, hooks, and algorithm.ts loop workers have no way to call MCP servers — they run as shell processes outside Claude conversations. mcpc breaks that wall. You could do things like:

# In a hook, a Tools script, or algorithm.ts between loop iterations:
mcpc tools-call linear save_issue --input '{"title": "ISC-C3 passing"}'
mcpc tools-call apify search_actors --input '{"query": "linkedin"}'

Concrete PAI opportunities I see:

1. Tools/MCPCall.ts — a thin wrapper around mcpc that lets any PAI script call MCP tools programmatically, reducing hardcoded API integrations in Skills
2. Algorithm loop orchestrator — algorithm.ts could call Linear/Notes between iterations to track criteria progress without spinning up a full Claude session
3. Hook integrations — hooks calling MCP tools to log events, update issues, or trigger notifications
4. Dynamic capability discovery in OBSERVE — mcpc tools-list as part of the CAPABILITY AUDIT to surface what is actually live, rather than relying on a static tools list
5. OAuth MCP servers — mcpc handles OAuth 2.1 + PKCE, which could unblock Notion, GCal, Gmail MCP servers that currently stall on auth

Curious if others have explored this direction, or if there are architectural reasons MCP access from outside-Claude would be intentionally scoped out?