A developer shares insights on why building software with zero external dependencies can lead to more secure and efficient applications, drawing from their experience creating a tool for AI agents.
Ever wondered what it would be like to build powerful software without relying on any external tools or libraries? That's exactly what one developer recently learned, and this approach has significant implications for all of us as tech users. Think about it: every app we use today typically relies on dozens, if not hundreds, of third-party packages. But what if those packages contained security flaws we knew nothing about?
This wasn't a theoretical question for the developer behind the 'mcptoon' tool. Following a major security incident involving a vulnerability in a transitive dependency within a popular Python tool, which affected thousands of projects, the developer realized the scale of the risk. They discovered they had installed hundreds of packages in a single year without auditing any of their dependencies. That’s when a bold decision was made: build 'mcptoon' using only Python's standard library, with zero external dependencies.
The 'mcptoon' tool acts as a bridge between AI agents (like Claude Code) and MCP servers. The problem it solves is that MCP tool schemas were being injected into the AI agent's context window as massive JSON files, consuming a significant portion of memory before any actual work began. 'mcptoon' keeps these schemas out of context, allowing the agent to run simple shell commands, with only the compact result entering the context.
Of course, this decision wasn't without its challenges. Instead of using well-known, ready-made libraries like 'requests' for HTTP requests, the developer had to hand-write much of the code using components from Python's standard library, such as 'urllib'. This often meant longer, more detailed code for seemingly simple tasks. However, the payoff is complete control over the codebase and a massive boost in security and trust. For us as users, this means that software built with this approach is often more stable and secure, giving us greater peace of mind when using it. It's an approach that might change how developers think about building software in the future.
This wasn't a theoretical question for the developer behind the 'mcptoon' tool. Following a major security incident involving a vulnerability in a transitive dependency within a popular Python tool, which affected thousands of projects, the developer realized the scale of the risk. They discovered they had installed hundreds of packages in a single year without auditing any of their dependencies. That’s when a bold decision was made: build 'mcptoon' using only Python's standard library, with zero external dependencies.
The 'mcptoon' tool acts as a bridge between AI agents (like Claude Code) and MCP servers. The problem it solves is that MCP tool schemas were being injected into the AI agent's context window as massive JSON files, consuming a significant portion of memory before any actual work began. 'mcptoon' keeps these schemas out of context, allowing the agent to run simple shell commands, with only the compact result entering the context.
Of course, this decision wasn't without its challenges. Instead of using well-known, ready-made libraries like 'requests' for HTTP requests, the developer had to hand-write much of the code using components from Python's standard library, such as 'urllib'. This often meant longer, more detailed code for seemingly simple tasks. However, the payoff is complete control over the codebase and a massive boost in security and trust. For us as users, this means that software built with this approach is often more stable and secure, giving us greater peace of mind when using it. It's an approach that might change how developers think about building software in the future.
