# The second wave of MCP: Building for LLMs, not developers

By Steven Van · 2025-09-09

Vercel's guide argues MCP servers should expose single workflow tools, like one deploy\_project call, instead of chaining separate API endpoints.

[Vercel](<https://creatorstoolbox.com/tools/vercel>) has published a guide arguing that most early MCP servers were built the wrong way: as thin wrappers around individual API operations, which suits how developers work but not how LLMs work. A developer writes the orchestration once and reuses it, keeping track of IDs and state between calls. An LLM starts every conversation fresh, so with low-level API wrappers it has to rediscover and re-run the same sequence each time, often getting nested configurations or required fields wrong.

Vercel's recommendation, laid out in its [announcement](<https://vercel.com/blog/the-second-wave-of-mcp-building-for-llms-not-developers>), is to design MCP tools around complete user intentions rather than API endpoints. Its example: instead of four separate tools (create\_project, add\_environment\_variables, create\_deployment, add\_domain) that an LLM must call in order while passing project IDs between them, expose one deploy\_project tool that handles the whole workflow internally and returns a conversational result, such as "Project deployed at example.com. Build completed in 45s," instead of a raw status code.

Its suggested process for building these tools:

- Walk through a real user request manually with the existing APIs first, and turn the tedious or repetitive steps into a single tool

- Keep deterministic work, such as API sequencing, error recovery and state management, in plain code, and only involve the LLM for parts that need reasoning or natural language

- Test with real user workflows: an LLM making repeated attempts or asking for clarification is a sign the tool design needs to change

Vercel points teams building MCP servers on its platform to its Next.js MCP template and documentation to get started.

[![](<https://assets.vercel.com/image/upload/contentful/image/e5382hct74si/6U5QB3nGgsw7w6jkqiF2NU/1ca5c0947bdd9fa83e26531b153d4d25/SecondWave_MCP__1_.png>)](<https://vercel.com/blog/the-second-wave-of-mcp-building-for-llms-not-developers>)

![Vercel](<https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=vercel.com&sz=128>)

Vercel

The platform for frontend developers — deploy, preview, and scale web apps and AI agents with zero config.

[View Vercel →](<https://creatorstoolbox.com/tools/vercel>)

[Original source](<https://vercel.com/blog/the-second-wave-of-mcp-building-for-llms-not-developers>)

[Read The second wave of MCP: Building for LLMs, not developers on Creators Toolbox](<https://creatorstoolbox.com/blog/vercel-the-second-wave-of-mcp-building-for-llms-not-developers>)

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Canonical source: https://creatorstoolbox.com/blog/vercel-the-second-wave-of-mcp-building-for-llms-not-developers