The Build - Agents as MCP Tools

In this episode of The Build, Cameron Rohn and Tom Spencer explore agents as MCP tools and practical workflows for building AI-first products. They begin by demonstrating Langgraph Agent and Langgraph Cloud, referencing A2A Design Pattern examples and showing how a SQL Agent can be wired into memory systems and API integration for responsive agent behavior. The hosts examine authentication strategies and development tools that streamline iteration, with concrete mentions of Langsmith for model orchestration, Vercel for deployment, and Supabase for backend primitives. The conversation then shifts to architectural trade-offs, where Tool Swarm Integration and the MCP Tool Framework surface as patterns for composing agents, external tools, and stateful memory. They analyze MCP tools and Tool Swarm approaches for latency, security, and scalability, outlining developer workflows that favor modularity and observability. They explore business models next, sketching Custom Agent Services, an Agent Marketplace, and monetization strategies grounded in developer experience and community adoption. Throughout, the tone remains technical yet accessible, balancing implementation details with entrepreneurship insights about building in public and open-source collaboration. The episode closes with a forward-looking call: builders should iterate publicly, integrate Langsmith, Vercel, Supabase and MCP Tool patterns, and ship agent-first products that prioritize secure auth, robust memory, and composable APIs.