Support per-MCP-server startDisabled option

Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Feb 5, 2026 by hgangireddygari Closed May 23, 2026

Problem

MCP servers with large tool schemas (e.g., Notion) consume significant tokens on initialization, even in sessions where they aren't needed. Currently, the only options are:

  1. Keep the server enabled (always pays the token cost)
  2. Remove it from enabledMcpjsonServers (but then it's unavailable via /mcp toggle)

There's no way to have a server available but not auto-initialized.

Proposed Solution

Add a per-server "startDisabled": true option in .mcp.json or settings.local.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notion-dev": {
      "url": "https://mcp-dev.notion.com/mcp",
      "startDisabled": true
    }
  }
}

Servers with startDisabled: true would:

  • Not initialize or load tool schemas on session start
  • Appear in /mcp so users can enable them on demand
  • Save tokens in sessions where the server isn't needed

Use Case

Our team has a Notion MCP that's only needed ~30% of sessions but consumes a large number of tokens every time. We want it available on demand without paying the cost every session.

View original on GitHub ↗

This issue has 3 comments on GitHub. Read the full discussion on GitHub ↗