Unused connectors and MCP servers still cost tokens in every session
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Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 2 comments · opened Oct 15, 2026
In the desktop app's Code tab, a session that had received only "hi" was already at 56.8k tokens of context. Deferred tool schemas already help, but integrations a session never uses still cost tokens every time:
- Every deferred tool name is listed when the session starts. In my session that was 163 names, and 65 of them belonged to Claude in Chrome, computer use and a Google Drive connector that the session never used. Connector tool names start with a 36-character UUID (
mcp__<uuid>__copy_file), which takes extra tokens. - The MCP server instructions for Claude in Chrome and computer use (1.7k tokens) load even when neither is used.
- The visualize connector is listed twice: once as loaded
mcp__visualize__*tools and again as UUID-prefixed deferred tools. - Turning on a claude.ai connector for one session also makes it the default for new sessions, so using a connector occasionally means remembering to turn it off afterwards.
- The context panel's Messages row showed 11.9k tokens at the first message. By my estimate, the session-start reminders I could identify account for 4–5k of that, and the panel doesn't break down the rest.
Suggestions:
- Show each unused server as one line (name, tool count, purpose), and load its tool names and instructions only when the model asks for that server.
- Load a server's instructions at the same time as its tool schemas.
- Use the server name in connector tool names in place of the UUID, and remove the duplicate visualize listing.
- Allow turning on a connector for one session without changing the default for new sessions.
- Break down the Messages row so session-start reminders are counted separately from the conversation.
Related: #13717, #47881
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