In this episode, Al, Jon, and Jerry catch up on some major life changes, dive deep into the world of Model Context Protocols (MCP), and discuss the practicalities of moving into IT consultancy. Plus, we explore why Docker might be your best friend for CLI tools and how to keep your AWS environment secure with temporary tokens.
Community Update
A Bit of News: The team shares an update regarding Stu, who is taking a step back from the show to focus on outside commitments. We wish him the absolute best! The podcast continues with Al, Jon, and Jerry at the helm.
The Racing Clock: This episode was recorded in a “sprint” style, thanks to Jon’s laptop battery giving a strictly enforced 46-minute deadline.
Development & AI
MCP Server Progress: Jon discusses building Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, specifically focusing on a Grafana server for incident management. By using an adapter to bridge Slack and Grafana via Claude, the team can correlate network events with real-time conversations.
The MCP Proxy Idea: A look into the “internal lab” at a potential proxy for MCPs to provide better visibility into LLM requests and responses.
Spec-Driven Development: Al breaks down the workflow of using LLMs for spec-driven development. By using tools like GitHub’s Spec Kit, the process moves from markdown standards to LLM-generated tests, ensuring software is built in small, verifiable increments.
The Business of IT
Contracting vs. Consulting: Jerry shares his transition from the contract market toward a full-scale IT Consultancy model.
Market Gap: Discussion on the demand for high-level IT support for small companies that don’t need a full five-day-a-week commitment.
Defining the Roles: A breakdown of the nuances between permanent employment (benefits/stability), contracting (freedom/higher risk), and consulting (multi-client management/marketing).
Tools & Security
Dockerized CLI Tools: Why Jon is moving toward wrapping command-line scripts in Docker containers. This approach eliminates the “it works on my machine” headache by bundling dependencies like Python versions and LibSSL directly into the image.
AWS Security: A shallow-ish dive into AWS Short-Lived Token Service (STS). We discuss why temporary tokens are a superior security choice over long-lived IAM access keys and how they compare to Azure’s SAS keys.
Events & Links
OggCamp 2026: Mark your calendars for April 25th! The crew plans to be there, and Jon is already prepping at least one talk.
Get in Touch
- Email: mail@adminadminpodcast.co.uk
- Community: Join our Telegram group to keep the conversation going.
Credits: Huge thanks to Dave Lee for the audio production. We are a proud member of the Other Side Podcast Network.