My Datadog Illuminated episode with Reilly Wood, whose team built the Datadog MCP server from scratch, distilled to a single lightboard. Read the full board notes here: gist.github.com/wiggitywh…

A lightboard titled "BUILDING AN MCP SERVER." A flowchart shows Datadog Backend to Datadog-hosted MCP Server via HTTP to Agent (labeled "WILDCARD") to User to "SUCCESS = HAPPY USER." Below: "TAMING THE AGENT (+ LLM) = Correctness + Efficiency." Three sections: left "Context Efficiency" (data format: JSON crossed out, replaced by YAML nested / CSV flat / TOON; agent control over context: let agents write SQL queries; good tool descriptions: smart yet succinct), center "no tool sprawl" (default core toolset: logs, metrics, traces; opt-in specialized toolset: synthetics), right "guide the agent" (specialized search docs tool with RAG; good error messages: Actionable; good server-level instructions: ex "use search docs RAG tool"). Chalk-style text on a dark lightboard.