MCP tool schemas cost 94% more tokens than CLI equivalents for AI agents

A developer compared MCP and CLI approaches for AI agent tooling and found MCP dumps ~15,540 tokens upfront for tool schemas vs ~300 tokens for CLI skill listings. The savings come from lazy discovery: CLI agents only load tool details when needed. The author generated a CLI from an MCP server using CLIHub, keeping the same tools and OAuth. While MCP offers standardization, the token overhead adds up at scale across typical setups with 6+ servers and 84+ tools.

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