AI tool comparison
DOOM MCP vs Phoenix LiveView
Which one should you ship with? Here is the side-by-side panel verdict, pricing read, reviewer split, and community vote comparison.
Developer Tools
DOOM MCP
Play DOOM inline inside Claude or ChatGPT — full game, no browser needed
75%
Panel ship
—
Community
Free
Entry
Chris Nager built a fully playable DOOM that runs as an MCP (Model Context Protocol) app, rendering inline inside Claude and ChatGPT without a separate browser tab. The architecture uses two MCP tools — create_doom_session for inline-capable hosts and get_doom_launch_url as a browser fallback — combined with cloudflare/doom-wasm for the game runtime and a signed token system that maintains session state across both surfaces. The result is the same session whether you're playing inline or in a tab. The key technical challenge was avoiding iframe and CSP (Content Security Policy) issues. Rather than embedding a browser page inside the MCP iframe, the DOOM canvas runs directly inside the host's iframe — a subtle but critical distinction that resolved a class of rendering and input-handling bugs. The final implementation is intentionally stripped down: no save/load, no persistence adapters, just stable playable DOOM. Beyond the novelty, this project is a concrete demonstration that MCP apps are interactive surfaces, not just tool-calling JSON endpoints. The progressive enhancement pattern — same signed-token foundation serving both inline and browser modes — is a reusable architecture for any game or interactive experience that wants to live inside an AI assistant. Nager open-sourced the implementation and the blog post is a detailed technical breakdown.
Developer Tools
Phoenix LiveView
Rich server-rendered UIs with Elixir
100%
Panel ship
—
Community
Free
Entry
Phoenix LiveView enables rich, real-time user interfaces with server-rendered HTML. No JavaScript needed for interactivity. Built on the BEAM VM for massive concurrency.
Reviewer scorecard
“The signed-token progressive enhancement pattern is the part worth stealing. This is a clean reference architecture for MCP interactive apps, and DOOM just happens to be the demo case.”
“Real-time UI without writing JavaScript. The BEAM VM handles millions of concurrent connections effortlessly.”
“Fun proof of concept but let's be honest: if your AI assistant is hosting a DOOM session, something has gone wrong with your productivity. The MCP-as-interactive-surface insight is real, but this specific app has no utility.”
“LiveView proves server-rendered real-time UI is viable. For CRUD apps with real-time needs, it eliminates the SPA.”
“Every major compute platform's pivot point is when it runs DOOM. MCP running DOOM means MCP is a real platform now. The implications for interactive AI-embedded experiences are significant.”
“Server-rendered real-time UI is the sleeper approach. LiveView, HTMX, and similar tools challenge SPA dominance.”
“As someone who thinks about interactive experiences, the idea of game-like UI living inside an AI context is genuinely exciting. This is a crude ancestor of what interactive AI-native media could become.”
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