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I was so excited to see if I can create a server that used sampling and quickly figured out I can't use it anywhere. Funnily Windsurf hangs forever if you use sampling.

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esafak

9 days ago

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For those unfamiliar with the term:

"Sampling is a powerful MCP feature that allows servers to request LLM completions through the client, enabling sophisticated agentic behaviors while maintaining security and privacy."

https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/concepts/sampling

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ericol

9 days ago

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I've been thinking about this ever since I heard that is defined in the protocol.

I think the biggest issue is that it can create loops in the flow of programs that would burn through usage quotas pretty fast. It could also allow for "impersonating" the client what opens up a lot of possibilities.

But yeah, the fact that Claude doesn't even implement this is... telling.

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auggierose

9 days ago

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Yeah, that is the reason it is not there, I guess, you could then really implement anything just with a flat rate.

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disintegrator

9 days ago

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VS Code seems to be working on it

https://www.epicai.pro/using-mcp-sampling-in-vs-code-insider...

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auggierose

9 days ago

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Yes, no sampling, last time I tried a few weeks ago. Have you tried with the latest Claude Desktop (0.10.14)?

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baalimago

9 days ago

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The fact that this is an achievement is a testament to how bloated the MCP protocol/spec already is.

Will be interesting to see how many days it'll take before the implementation no longer is the latest

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tomashubelbauer

9 days ago

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I don't disagree, but the first sentence of your post happens to be true for very many specs/protocols I know of and have implemented in the past. And it is not just communication protocols. Take PDF for example. The world practically runs on it, yet the file format is horrid. The real standard seems to be that standards are bloated by default.

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Spivak

9 days ago

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Right but MCP is a brand new protocol which is at its core JSON-RPC formatted messages and a few verbs. It doesn't actually do much. The main things are tool definitions which is just a JSON schema describing a function call and resources which a is a wisp of a filesystem.

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tomashubelbauer

9 days ago

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Fair, thought I have a feeling MCP will actually grow to do much more. I wouldn't disagree with the sentiment that it is too bloated too soon, but I also feel like it is destined to be bloated, because the technology it is targeting is sort of a moving target itself. Of course with proper versioning, this is easeable, deprecate stuff that turned out to be the wrong turn and cut major versions or introduce extensions to the protocol when new stuff is on the scene, but then you're liable to find yourself in an XMPP-style situation where no one implements the standard and extensions wholly, because it is so complex.

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welanes

9 days ago

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This guide may be useful for anyone interested in building their own spec-compliant MCP server: https://simplescraper.io/blog/how-to-mcp.

Albeit, it's a few weeks old so already in need of an update!

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LeonidBugaev

9 days ago

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It does not implement the Auth :)

(mcp auth is terrible btw)

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seanobannon

9 days ago

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I couldn’t find any great examples of MCP auth, so made this demonstrate an oauth flow recently - https://github.com/OBannon37/chatgpt-deep-research-connector...

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WXLCKNO

9 days ago

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For my app I'm bypassing MCP auth and doing the regular oauth2 flow to connect users to external apps.

Then I pass the stored oauth token directly to my (private) MCP servers alongside a bearer token.

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pcwelder

9 days ago

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Tool annotations are missing. (Are they of any use though?)

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cranberryturkey

9 days ago

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also checkout @profullstack/mcp-server on npm

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jhosft

9 days ago

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That README.md is so vibed with all the emojis and self-proofed comments. One day we’re going to look back on code written in June 2025 and laugh. The code works, but man does Claude 4 pump itself up.

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esafak

9 days ago

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The median code base it is trained on must be like that.

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hammyhavoc

9 days ago

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University student work y'say?

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hammyhavoc