The Overlap
Both MCP and Spokes expose external capabilities to agents. A Spoke is Salesforce-native, packaged, governed through Setup. An MCP server is vendor-neutral, callable from multiple agent platforms.
When Spokes Win
Deep Salesforce integration — Trust Layer coverage, native logging, packaged distribution via AppExchange. Actions that need platform-level guarantees. Existing Spokes you’ve already built.
When MCP Wins
Multi-platform agent strategy. Exposing capabilities to non-Salesforce agents (Claude, Cursor, Copilot). New integrations where the MCP server is a thin wrapper over existing APIs.
The Hybrid Reality
Mature orgs will run both. Spokes for Salesforce-exclusive agents. MCP for cross-platform tooling. Don’t force one pattern on everything. The right answer depends on which agents need what.