UTCP (Universal Tool Calling Protocol) is an open standard for AI agents to call tools directly, positioned as a lightweight alternative to MCP. It eliminates the "wrapper tax" for lower latency by using a simple JSON manifest to connect to native APIs.
Hi everyone!
In the world of AI agents, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) has quickly become the dominant, industry-backed standard for tool calling. But a new, community-driven challenger has emerged with a completely different philosophy: the Universal Tool Calling Protocol (UTCP).
UTCP's approach is all about direct connection. Instead of requiring a wrapper server like MCP, it lets an agent call a tool's native endpoint (like a REST API) directly. This means lower latency, no "wrapper tax," and you can reuse all your existing security and auth.
While UTCP is still in its early days and doesn't have MCP's massive ecosystem backing, I don't expect it to challenge that dominance overnight. But sometimes the opposite of a good strategy is also a good strategy. I believe UTCP has the potential to grow a new ecosystem. After all, change, innovation, and competition are what ultimately make everything better.
Open API alternatives are critical. What’s your approach to keeping the tool-calling secure?
UTCP.io seems like an elegant solution love how it centralizes team communications with secure, customizable workspaces. Quick question are you planning to add integrations with popular project management tools like Jira or Trello to streamline workflows even further?
What do you think, is it possible to create a popular protocol that rivals MCP?
@juan_viera_garcia1@aliraza36580 why not move your UTCP discovery endpoint to `/.well-known` since .well-known URI path is a special directory defined by the IETF in RFC 5785. It allows web services to expose information or configuration files in a predictable, standardized location.
This sounds like a solid move toward more open, efficient tool integration for AI agents. Love the focus on reducing wrapper overhead. Looking forward to trying it out when I can. Congrats on the launch 🚀
Cutting out that "wrapper tax" with just a simple JSON manifest? That’s honestly genius, fr. Been waiting for something like this—props to the team!
I read about security issues in MCP, hope UTCP would focus on that, can give them edge (Similar to HTTPS came for web)
Without wrapper-driven standardization, how do you plan to prevent integration fragmentation that could hurt interoperability between tools?
