Show HN: Save Context from MCP Bloat
mcp-context-guard is a lightweight proxy tool designed to manage large responses from MCP servers by caching oversized tool outputs and returning minimal stubs. It introduces a seek_result tool that allows users to query cached content with filters like jq or grep to retrieve only relevant data. The tool supports both local and remote MCP servers, with transparent handling of OAuth flows and minimal impact on existing workflows.
- ▪mcp-context-guard prevents large tool responses from overwhelming the context window by caching them and returning small stubs.
- ▪The seek_result tool enables filtering cached responses using jq expressions or grep patterns to extract needed information.
- ▪It supports both local subprocess and remote HTTP MCP servers, with full OAuth transparency for remote setups.
- ▪Small responses under the size threshold pass through unchanged, preserving normal behavior.
- ▪The tool is distributed as a static binary with no runtime dependencies and requires Go 1.21+ for building from source.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
mcp-context-guard A lightweight wrapper for any MCP server that prevents large tool responses from flooding your context window. When a tool response exceeds a configurable size threshold, the proxy caches it and returns a small stub instead. You then query the cached response using the injected seek_result tool, applying a jq expression or grep pattern to extract only what you need. How it works MCP Client → mcp-context-guard → your MCP server (local subprocess or remote HTTP) The wrapper sits between your MCP client and any MCP server — local (stdio subprocess) or remote (Streamable HTTP). It: Passes through all tool schemas unchanged — the client sees the same tools as before, plus one new tool: seek_result.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at GitHub.