The MCP hype is a distraction. AI Agents should just build their own tools

Summary

For the past year, the agentic AI space has been buzzing about protocols like MCP as the future of tool integration. The idea was simple: create standardized servers so agents could discover and use new tools. But what if that entire paradigm was a deadend, not the destination?With rtrvr.ai v12.5, we're introducing a feature that challenges this premise directly: On-the-Fly Tool Generation (ToolGen). Why configure a list of pre-defined tools when your agent can simply create the exact tool it needs, the moment it needs it just by using your browser?🤔 Reinventing the Auth WheelIt's basically become nonsensical that with all the automation capabilities of AI Agents, configuring tools for them has remained painfully manual. Users have to find the right MCP server, set it up, manage authentication, and hope the pre-built tools match their specific needs. MCP's were supposed to be a layer of abstraction that packages ready to use agentic tools but ended up reinventing an authentication layer of API keys, OAuth, hosting servers at a URL.Our insight was simple: The browser *is* the authentication layer. Your logins, cookies, and active sessions are already there. An AI Web Agent can just reuse these credentials, find your API key and construct a tool to use. If you have an API key on your screen, you have an integration. It's that simple.🛠️ From Using Tools to Creating Them on the FlyWith ToolGen, you just prompt your goal. For instance, while viewing your HubSpot developer page, you can give a single, powerful prompt:"Using this access token, create a tool to upload a new contact. Then, go to my LinkedIn, find my 5 most recent connections, and use the new tool to add them and their details as contacts in HubSpot."In one seamless flow, rtrvr.ai:Perceives the Context: It identifies the access token on the page.Generates the Code: It instantly writes the necessary Javascript to call the HubSpot API, creating a new function.Executes the Plan: It navigates to LinkedIn, scrapes...