SZSan zhanginmcptoon.hashnode.dev·2d ago · 4 min readThe Name Index Pattern: Cutting Agent Context 99.2% on Tools and Skills AlikeThere's a pattern I keep reaching for whenever an agent's context gets crowded, and it took me too long to notice it applies in two places at once. The pattern is small: keep names resident, fetch bod00
SZSan zhanginmcptoon.hashnode.dev·Sep 10 · 4 min readThe 4,250-Token Handshake: What 24 MCP Tools Charge Before Your Agent Answers a Single QuestionIf you run an AI agent wired to MCP servers, there's a handshake happening before every single reply — and you've never seen the invoice. This post is that invoice, itemized, plus the exact engineerin00
SZSan zhanginmcptoon.hashnode.dev·Sep 9 · 2 min readMCP Tool Discovery Ate 3,384 Tokens per Turn. I Got It Down to 816 with mcptoonMCP Tool Discovery Ate 3,384 Tokens per Turn. I Got It Down to 816. Every time your AI Agent or coding assistant (like Claude Code or Cursor) connects to your infrastructure stack, it pays a silent "e00
SZSan zhanginmcptoon.hashnode.dev·Sep 7 · 4 min readThe MCP Token Tax Hides in the Braces, Not the DescriptionsLast week I did something a little ridiculous: I audited my own MCP traffic the way an accountant audits expense reports. Not to catch a bug — to find out where the money goes. My agent was burning to00
SZSan zhanginmcptoon.hashnode.dev·Sep 4 · 2 min readI Counted Every Token My MCP Tools Burned. The Number Was Shocking.Every time you open a new session, your AI client re-bills you for the same tool manifest. I never noticed â until I counted. On a config with 255 tools across 50 servers, the raw JSON tool list is 00
