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.
I never understood why MCP needs to rely so heavily on heavy client/server architecture. This direct way of having LLMs call endpoints makes it much more easy and efficient to implement tool calling :)
UTCP is an elegant solution to agent tool calling. Unlike MCP, no wrappers or clunky servers need to be maintained and no extra auth, billing etc. logic needs to be built again.
