MCP for Python

Build MCP apps ≠ use live MCP servers. Distinct from Playwright MCP / Context7 / Serena (capability servers) and from SuperGateway (transport glue). Horizon paid optional for ops at scale; day-one path is OSS FastMCP alone.

Vs FastMCP (build MCP servers), Agno/VoltAgent/AG2 (general agent frameworks), and SuperGateway/mcp-remote (transport glue): mcp-agent is MCP-first agent runtime + durable workflows, not a coding CLI and not transport plumbing. LastMile cloud deploy/login is optional — day-one is OSS you run. Temporal ops are yours if you turn durability on.

Vs SuperGateway / mcp-remote (transport bridges) and MCP Inspector (debug UI): mcp2cli is a runtime CLI façade for APIs/MCP, not a gateway product and not an inspector. GraphQL mode needs introspection. You still trust whatever endpoint you point it at.

Vs SuperGateway and mcp-remote: ContextForge is a heavier self-host governance/observability gateway, not a thin MCP bridge. Vs Smithery: this is a self-host gate you operate, not a hosted MCP marketplace. Open-issue count is high for the maturity pitch; local/JWT setups need real secrets — do not ship example tokens.

Vs Desktop Commander MCP: that is desktop-host terminal/files/processes; this is the chat-client→coding-agent hands layer (patches, interactive sessions, git) for any MCP client. Mid-★ (~1158) kept as Agents/MCP fill — Landlock is Linux-only; use Docker/VM for untrusted work.

Vs google-workspace-cli (`gws`): that is first-party Drive/Gmail/Calendar/Admin Workspace CLI+skills; this is NotebookLM/Gemini Notebook notebooks via MCP/CLI. Undocumented internal APIs that can change, plus cookie extraction from the browser for auth — personal/experimental risk, not a paid CLI wall. Enterprise Notebook host support is experimental.