[Feature] Prompt to enable disabled MCP servers when tool search matches them
Resolved 💬 5 comments Opened Mar 25, 2026 by x-typo Closed Apr 24, 2026
Problem
When a user disables MCP servers via /mcp to reduce token overhead, Claude loses all visibility into those servers. If the user later asks Claude to use a tool from a disabled server, Claude reports it as "not currently configured" and has no way to help re-enable it.
This forces users to manually open /mcp, find the server, enable it, then re-ask their question. For users managing many MCP servers (5-10+) who want to keep only a few active at a time, this creates friction every time they need to "rotate" between servers.
Current behavior
- User disables
aig-testrailvia/mcp-> Disable - User asks: "test connection with aig-testrail"
- Claude says: "aig-testrail is not currently configured" (no awareness it exists but is disabled)
- User must manually:
/mcp-> select server -> Reconnect -> re-ask
Expected behavior
- User disables
aig-testrailvia/mcp-> Disable - User asks: "test connection with aig-testrail"
- Claude (or tool search) detects
aig-testrailexists but is disabled - Claude prompts: "aig-testrail is disabled. Would you like me to enable it?"
- User confirms, server connects, Claude proceeds with the original request
Why this matters
- Users with many MCP servers disable unused ones to reduce context token overhead (~31k tokens for 9 servers)
- Disabling is the right behavior for cost/context management
- But the re-enable workflow breaks the conversational flow
- This is especially painful for users who rotate between servers depending on the task (e.g., Jira + Confluence for planning, TestRail + Harness for QA, Datalake for analytics)
Environment
- Claude Code v2.1.83
- macOS
- 9+ user-configured MCP servers via
~/.claude.json
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