A complete compilation of Huang Yihe's posts about the Model Context Protocol (MCP) from 2025-03 to 2026-05. From the earliest judgment that "MCP will be more mainstream than GUI Agents", to the full path of integrating the MCP ecosystem into his own product newtype OS in 2026.
When to open this:
- You have heard of MCP but don't know why you should use it / how it differs from Function Calling
- You want to build an MCP server but don't know where to start
- You installed MCP but can't get it to work (npx / smithery / Cursor shows red light)
- You want to understand the relationship between MCP / Skill / Sub-agents
- You want to see predictions for Agent ecosystem evolution (DOS → Win95 → Internet explosion)
0. What is MCP (why Lao Huang is bullish on it)
MCP = Model Context Protocol(Launched by Anthropic) = a middle-layer protocol that allows LLMs to call various external tools/data sources through a unified interface.
Lao Huang's judgment (Post 1047, 2025-03):
"This middle-layer protocol approach represented by MCP will definitely be the mainstream. It has low cost and high flexibility. Claude paired with MCP can already accomplish quite a lot of work."
Why not choose GUI Agents (Computer Use / Browser Use):
- GUI Agents let AI operate interfaces designed for humans → low efficiency, high cost, error-prone
- MCP lets AI make calls through a protocol → standardized, composable, auditable
See newtype · Agent Architecture and Multi-Agent Orchestration §3 Agent Native Protocol Predictions for details.
1. The DOS → Win95 → Internet explosion evolution of the MCP ecosystem (Post 1170, 2025-04)
The timeline Lao Huang drew for the entire Agent ecosystem in 2025-04:
| Stage | Time | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| DOS era(current) | As of 2025-04 | LLMs evolve into Agents through MCP, requiring manual configuration by users; there are few MCP Servers and limited Tools |
| Win95 era(next stage) | Late 2025 ~ 2026 | Users no longer interact with MCP directly; it is packaged together with LLMs into Agents. Core functional experiences are basically formed. Agent interconnection begins to emerge (similar to dial-up Internet) |
| 2000 Internet explosion | After A2A + Agentic Web | Full of prosperity |
Key prediction:
- The current pain users feel configuring MCP is temporary,it will be packaged up in the future
- This evolution path in turn gives guidance to product builders:The focus is not on making MCP configuration easier to use, but on packaging MCP capabilities into Agents
When to apply this:
- When you hear complaints that "MCP has poor user experience", recognize that this is a characteristic of the DOS era, not a problem with the protocol itself
- When evaluating MCP product directions, ask "Am I building a tool for the DOS era, or paving the way for the Win95 era?"
2. MCPs built by Lao Huang himself
2.1 Obsidian MCP (2025-03 → 2025-07, continuous iteration)
GitHub: github.com/newtype-01/obsidian-mcp
Features:
- Read / create / edit Obsidian notes
- Added later
auto_backlink_vault tool— automatically adds backlinks (50 notes per batch, processed by AI)
Choose one of three deployment methods:
- DXT file(Claude Desktop, simplest)
- Remote installation: npm package + run via npx
- Local installation:
npm installthennpx
How it was developed: Code was written by Cline; Lao Huang only gave requirements. The README and gitignore were both written by Cursor.
Lao Huang's recommended learning approach (Post 1531, 2025-07): Want to configure MCP but can't get it right?Give the GitHub link of Obsidian MCP to Cursor, and ask it to explain what an npm package is / what npx is / what install does / why the command becomes the project name after installation. Once you understand these, you will know how to install any MCP project.
Reddit marketing(Post 1460, 2025-07): Posted to promote it on r/ObsidianMD, got over 5K views, 36 upvotes; foreigners asked serious questions, and Lao Huang used Gemini to help reply seriously.
2.2 Replicate Flux MCP
Calls the Flux model on the Replicate platform to generate images.The second MCP Lao Huang developed himself using Cline.
After Replicate released its official MCP in 2025-08 (Post 1613), Lao Huang's project was replaced by the official version.
2.3 Prompt House MCP
See newtype · Vibe Coding Independent Product in Practice §2-3 for details. Core point:Prompt House itself is an MCP server, and clients call the Prompts stored inside via MCP (two Tool Calls: list + content).
3. List of commonly used MCPs (recommended from Lao Huang's practical use)
Default installation category
| MCP | What it does | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sequential Thinking | Lets LLMs do deep thinking (break down tasks, iterate) | MCPs that Lao Huang "will install and keep by default" (Posts 1294, 1435) |
| Tavily | Web search (sufficient free quota) | Compensates for weaknesses of Claude's built-in search |
| Obsidian MCP | Self-built note library read/write | See §2.1 |
| Prompt House MCP | Prompt storage + invocation | See §2.3 |
Knowledge base/memory category
| MCP | What it does |
|---|---|
| Milvus + vector database(Post 1083) | Local RAG. Store documents in it + vectorize them; any client connects via MCP |
| OpenMemory MCP(Posts 1338, 1355) | Text memory + vector storage, different clients share the same memory bank |
| NotebookLM MCP(Post 2077) | Third-party open source github.com/PleasePrompto/notebooklm-mcp |
| context7 MCP(Post 1336) | Document retrieval (API docs and the like) |
Content/media category
| MCP | What it does |
|---|---|
| n8n MCP(Posts 1523, 1608) | Workflow orchestration. Claude generates JSON workflows, which are imported into n8n. n8n's MCP Server Trigger can in turn convert workflows back to MCP |
| Markitdown MCP(Posts 1144, 2080) | Microsoft, any file → Markdown |
PPT MCP supercurses/powerpoint(Post 1025) |
Generate PPTs.Shortcoming: Not aesthetically pleasing, lacks design Tools. Even when asked to make 16:9 it still outputs 4:3 |
| RedNote MCP(Post 1123) | Xiaohongshu. Operates the browser via Playwright, persistent login, maximum 10 read-only text entries |
| Replicate official MCP(Post 1613) | Image generation models such as Flux |
| NotebookLM MCP | Call NotebookLM within Claude Code |
Backend category
| MCP | What it does |
|---|---|
| Supabase MCP(Posts 1582, 1700) | Lao Huang actually doesn't use it; Claude directly knows how to configure Supabase, and when operations are needed it gives SQL, which is manually pasted into the Editor to run |
Search category (Post 2694, 2026-04)
| MCP | Notes |
|---|---|
| Tavily | Has free quota |
| firecrawl | Web scraping |
| EXA | Included by default in newtype OS, sufficient for daily use |
| Perplexity MCP (Post 1975) | Lao Huang uses Perplexity when he needs to search for something specifically |
Discovery sources
- mcp.so(Post 968) — made by idoubi,has ads(Post 1326)
- Smithery(Posts 1289, 1326) — many platform connection issues, Lao Huang has abandoned it
- Raycast Store: Model Context Protocol Registry(Post 1212) — built into Raycast, well-made import management
- Anthropic official course deeplearning.ai/short-courses/mcp-build-rich-context-ai-apps-with-anthropic (Post 1255)
- LangChain Open Agent Platform(Post 1244) — integrates Agent + RAG + MCP
4. Common pitfalls in MCP configuration
4.1 command not found: npx(Post 1064)
Cause: Node.js / NPM not installed. Solution:
- Install Node.js LTS (comes with NPM)
npm install -g npmUpgrade NPM to 5.2+ which comes with NPX built-innpx -vVerify
4.2 Adding MCP in Cursor always shows red (Posts 1165, 1340)
Possible causes:
- Configuring via smithery terminal command → smithery itself has connection issues (Post 1289)
- Among Cursor's built-in models, only Claude can call MCP (Post 1340) — this was a Cursor limitation at the time
Lao Huang's solution: Test each MCP individually to see if Cursor can call it normally.
4.3 ChatWise configuration issues (Posts 1053, 2393)
Change in Lao Huang's attitude: He often recommended ChatWise in early 2025; in 2026-02 a user reported that "GitHub issues say it is not frequently maintained" → Lao Huang acquiesced.
Lao Huang's ChatWise usage in 2025-04 (Post 1176):
- 4 permanent MCPs (included in screenshot)
- ChatWise serves 2 main purposes: 1) Backup, use it when other tools are down or out of quota 2) Early adopter testing, compare new models/new MCPs
4.4 Relationship between Sequential Thinking and models' built-in Thinking (Post 1435)
Question: If the model already has built-in Thinking, is the Sequential Thinking MCP still needed? Answer:
- The Thinking of flagship models (Claude 4 / o3 / Gemini 2.5 Pro / Qwen3) can replace it
- But API access has costs → it is helpful for models that do not have or do not enable Thinking
- Best practice: Configure Sequential Thinking and let the model decide for itself. Claude 4's behavior in ChatWise is: use built-in Thinking before starting work, call Sequential Thinking when producing output
4.5 Claude 4 Sonnet automatically calls Sequential Thinking (Post 1294)
Observation: Claude 4 Sonnet It calls the Sequential Thinking MCP while doing its own Thinking(previous models did not behave this way).
Behavior comparison:
- Unlike o3 which plows ahead blindly
- Unlike Gemini 2.5 Pro which rambles constantly
- It works very logically, step by step while explaining, and reviews and summarizes after finishing
4.6 Super Analyst Skill skips MCP calls (Post 2093)
Problem: The latest version of Claude CLI outputs results directly without calling the Prompt House MCP. Lao Huang's solution(in AI OS):
claude.mdRecord configured MCPs and Skills in detail, including usage scenarios and invocation prerequisites- In the Skills section, emphasize following the
skill.mdSOP process, including tool calls - This solves it once and for all
4.7 OpenMemory MCP deployment issues (Post 1530)
The official documentation has some problems, deployment fails. Lao Huang's solution: let Cursor help fix it.
5. MCP + n8n workflow closed loop (Posts 1523, 1608, 2025-07)
Key insight: n8n can both generate workflows(let Claude write JSON for import), and output workflows(MCP Server Trigger converts workflows into MCP servers for Claude/ChatWise to call).
Specific recipe:
Claude 生成 n8n 工作流 JSON → 导入 n8n
↓
n8n 工作流跑通
↓
在工作流开头加 Execute Sub-workflow
↓
用 MCP Server Trigger 把它转成 MCP
↓
Claude / ChatWise 再调用这个 MCP
Example: Not satisfied with Claude's built-in web search → build your own search workflow with n8n (configure a Model Selector to distinguish search tasks) → connect it back to Claude via MCP.
Why this combination is powerful:
- Closed loop: both generation and output are completed within n8n
- Modular: each workflow is an MCP server that can be maintained independently
- Cross-client: the same MCP works for all MCP-compatible clients
6. The co-evolution of MCP + Skill (2025-10 → 2026)
2025-10 Super Analyst Skill introduces Sequential Thinking (Posts 1906, 1912)
Upgrade approach:
- v1 Super Analyst was just 12 analysis framework prompts
- v2 Super Analyst Pro = v1 + Sequential Thinking MCP
Pro version capabilities:
- Problem analysis: Automatically identify complexity Level 1/2/3
- Information gathering: Determine keywords and number of search rounds based on complexity,with equal emphasis on Chinese and English
- Analysis framework selection: Pick up to 4, combine them in serial or parallel
Prerequisites: Two MCPs must be installed: Prompt House (stores the 12 analysis framework prompts) + Sequential Thinking (for deep reasoning).
2025-12 The 4 major technology stacks of Claude Code (Post 2148)
Lao Huang's answer to "why choose Claude Code as the personal AI system framework":
| Stack | What it does |
|---|---|
| Skills | Capability loading |
| MCP | Tool calling |
| Slash commands | Workflow reuse |
| Sub-agents | Multi-threaded division of labor |
Having all 4 of these = satisfying personal daily work + efficiency needs.
2026-01 OpenCode becomes compatible with Claude Code configurations (Posts 2237, 2263)
- Skills:
.claude/skills/SKILL.mdcan be read directly by OpenCode, no migration needed to.opencode/skills/ - Slash Commands → Custom Commands: There are slight syntax differences; project-level configs are placed in
.opencode/commands/ - MCP: Configuration file paths and formats are not completely identical,OpenCode cannot directly reuse Claude Code's MCP configurations(In Post 2263, Lao Huang manually created a copy in
.opencode/mcp.json) - oh-my-opencode enhancement plugin → after installation, it is basically natively compatible with Claude Code configurations
2026-03 Shift in software direction (Post 2542)
The direction of software development is shifting from human-oriented to Agent-oriented. Because the proportion of Agents operating software will definitely grow larger and larger, and the proportion of Agents as the main productive force will definitely grow larger and larger. Under this trend,the four technology stacks of CLI, Skills, MCP, and Framework are worth paying attention to.
7. Personal AI system design from the perspective of MCP (2025-07 Post 1495)
Lao Huang's core belief(his underlying logic for building products):
Context Matters!
"Look at the Prompt House and Obsidian MCP I've already released, and the plugins I'm about to build — they are all developed based on this philosophy. It can be said that these products are purely carriers,used to express my philosophy. "
MCP is a tool for Context Engineering:
- Prompt House MCP → manages Context in the form of Prompts
- Obsidian MCP → manages Context in the form of notes
- Sequential Thinking MCP → manages Context in the form of reasoning workflows
- Milvus / OpenMemory MCP → manages Context in the form of vector memory
Why this perspective is useful: It gives a unified explanation for all MCPs → they all provide better Context (information environment) for LLMs, rather than providing new "model capabilities".
8. Context Engineering vs Prompt Engineering (2025-08 Post 1626)
Lao Huang's analysis of a key conceptual evolution:
| Prompt Engineering (past 2 years) | Context Engineering (became popular starting in 2025) | |
|---|---|---|
| Essence | Giving clear instructions / examples / formats within a single prompt | Building an entire "information environment" for the model to make judgments and reason autonomously |
| Background | Models did not have strong enough reasoning capabilities and could only serve as passive tools | Models now have deep thinking capabilities and can serve as assistants or even partners |
| Approach | Issuing commands | Creating an environment |
| Tool system | Prompt templates | MCP / n8n / Sub-agents / Model Selector / Memory(Mem0) |
Why this distinction is decisive for tool selection:
- Learning Prompt Engineering has already been largely replaced by Prompt House / template libraries
- Learning Context Engineering (how to assemble/clean/compress/retrieve Context) → remains valuable long-term
- MCP is the most fundamental building block of Context Engineering
See newtype · Agent Architecture and Multi-Agent Orchestration §14 Context > Compute.
9. MCP design pattern example: replicating Warren Buffett's investment philosophy (2025-11 Post 1975)
User asked: To replicate Warren Buffett's investment philosophy with an LLM, RAG or fine-tuning?
Lao Huang's answer (complete SOP):
1. 拆解"巴菲特投资思想"
↓
不能把书和每年的信全部丢给 AI
要提炼:基本原则 / 价值观 / 分析框架 / 步骤
形成一套 SOP
这个拆解过程跟 Gemini + Deep Research 共同完成
2. 围绕 SOP 配工具(MCP)
↓
搜集资料 → Perplexity MCP
特定信息源(如 SEC)→ 特定 API
3. 定义输出规范
↓
有什么参考示例
4. 全部打包进 Skill
↓
能力包(提示词 + 工具调用 + 类 RAG 的参考信息)
放 Claude Desktop / Claude Code 都可以
Why this is a representative case of the MCP + Skill combination:
- No reliance on fine-tuning(high cost, hard to iterate)
- No reliance on pure RAG(only retrieval, lacks analysis frameworks)
- Relies on the SOP + MCP + Skill combination = using Context Engineering to replace model capabilities
When to use: When you want to use AI to replicate an expert's methodology / ideological system / thinking framework, apply this template.
10. Methods to improve MCP call stability (2025-12 Post 2093)
Problem: The Super Analyst Skill in the latest version of Claude CLI skips MCP and produces results directly.
Lao Huang's "once-and-for-all" solution:
claude.md 文件里详细记录:
├── 已经配置好的 MCP(每个)
│ ├── 使用场景
│ └── 调用前提
└── 已经配置好的 Skills
├── 强调要按 skill.md 里的 SOP 流程走
└── 包括必须的工具调用
Why: The reliability of an AI system does not come from the model, but from clear metadata(claude.md documentation). Each version of Claude / GPT may change default behavior, but as long as metadata constraints remain unchanged, the behavior will not change.
11. Anti-patterns
| ❌ | ✅ |
|---|---|
| Grinding on Prompt Engineering | Learn Context Engineering; MCP is the fundamental building block |
| Waiting for a "perfect" MCP ecosystem | We are currently in the DOS era → accept that configuration is not easy; this is exactly where early adopter advantages lie |
| Configuring MCP with smithery | Lao Huang gave up on it; it frequently fails to connect. Check mcp.so / Raycast Registry / official GitHub directly |
| Jumping straight into developing your own MCP | First use Cline / Cursor to let AI write it for you (that's how Lao Huang did it) |
| Treating MCP as a "model capability plugin pack" | MCP is a Context tool; its essence is to build an information environment for the model |
| Fine-tuning a model to replicate a certain ideology | The SOP + MCP + Skill combination is low-cost and iterable |
| Trying to move Claude Code configurations directly to OpenCode | The MCP part is not universal; you need to reconfigure it in .opencode/mcp.json Reconfigure |
| Retrying when MCP calls are skipped | Specify detailed constraints in claude.md to force execution through the Skill SOP |
| Choosing between Sequential Thinking and the model's built-in Thinking | Set both up and let the model decide on its own. Claude 4 already knows how to choose intelligently |
12. Backlinks
Main references: All 83 posts related to the MCP topic in the newtype Knowledge Planet (2025-03 to 2026-05), including:
- Posts by Lao Huang himself (majority): 962, 968, 978, 1025, 1083, 1123, 1144, 1170, 1212, 1244, 1255, 1256, 1294, 1338, 1340, 1355, 1455, 1460, 1461, 1465, 1467, 1495, 1523, 1531, 1570, 1582, 1608, 1613, 1626, 1906, 1912, 2077, 2148, 2237, 2263, 2330, 2542, 2535 (partial)
- User Q&A (significant contributions): 1033, 1043, 1047, 1053, 1064, 1082, 1086, 1176, 1188, 1221, 1244, 1249, 1283, 1289, 1314, 1326, 1332, 1336, 1340, 1345, 1432, 1433, 1435, 1530, 1582, 1596, 1626, 1700, 1952, 1953, 1975, 1979, 2000, 2080, 2093, 2144, 2161, 2216, 2371, 2393, 2553, 2659, 2692, 2694, 2695
Companion wikis:
- newtype · Agent Architecture and Multi-Agent Orchestration — Agent Architecture / Workflow / Sub-agents / Agent Native
- newtype · Vibe Coding Independent Product in Practice — Product evolution of Prompt House MCP / Obsidian MCP
- (TODO)Full Evolution of the newtype Knowledge System and Life OS — Obsidian + Milvus/OpenMemory + NotebookLM knowledge base stack
- (TODO)newtype · AI Coding in Practice and Tool Stack Evolution — How to configure MCP for Cursor / Claude Code / Cline
History
- 2026-05-16 v1.0 created — Phase 1.1 wiki #4. Digested and organized from the full set of 83 posts in the MCP topic bucket (2025-03 to 2026-05), no sampling. Structured across 11 dimensions: DOS-era judgment / MCPs built by Lao Huang / list of commonly used MCPs / configuration pitfalls / MCP + n8n / MCP + Skill / Context Engineering / Buffett-replication SOP / shift in software direction.