---
type: concept
title: "The Problems With MCP Servers"
description: "MCP's practical failure modes, tool overload and context/token bloat that overwhelm LLMs, JSON setup friction, and early production gaps like missing built-in auth and security."
tags: [mcp, context-engineering, tools, security, context-bloat, token-bloat, limitations, ai-coding]
videos: [the-big-problem-with-mcp-servers-and-the-solution, claude-skills-arent-just-for-claude-heres-how-to-build-them-for-any-agent, i-built-my-second-brain-with-claude-code-obsidian-skills-heres-how, build-and-ship-any-mcp-server-in-minutes-full-guide, docker-just-made-using-mcp-servers-100x-easier-one-click-installs, ai-exploded-in-2025-heres-everything-that-happened, build-an-army-of-ai-agents-on-autopilot-with-archon-heres-how, google-is-quietly-revolutionizing-ai-agents-this-is-huge, claude-mcp-has-changed-ai-forever-heres-what-you-need-to-know, why-is-everyone-missing-this-with-ai-agents-memory-tools-that-scale, ai-code-that-fixes-itself-an-mcp-you-can-try-now, pi-coding-agent-archon-build-any-ai-coding-workflow-no-claude-code-bloat]
created: 2026-07-21
updated: 2026-07-21
---

# The Problems With MCP Servers

For all its reach, [MCP](./mcp.md) has real failure modes, and the headline one is cost. "The problem with MCP servers is that they are incredibly token inefficient and rigid." [0:00:58] Every tool is paid for twice: "every single tool definition like the when and the Y for the tool and the parameters and also every single time we leverage the tool both are going to fill our context window." [0:01:25] The bill is concrete: "the MCP tools alone are taking 97,000 tokens. That is 48% of the context available for Claude Sonnet 4.5." [0:02:23]

**Tool overload is the mechanism behind the bloat.** Tools are loaded up front whether or not the agent needs them: "other methods like MCP servers, the problem there is we're giving a ton of tools up front to the agent even if it never needs to use them in a specific conversation. That is bad." [0:03:44] "With MCP servers or any other way to give tools to our agent, we have to describe all of the tools upfront" [0:07:53], so "if we had an MCP server for every single one of these, we would just be overwhelming our LLM for no reason." [0:11:39] This compounds a general truth about agents: "LLMs get overwhelmed very quickly if you give them too many tools because every single tool is just increasing the length of the prompt to the LLM." [0:03:49] The proposed fix is splitting the burden or loading capability on demand.

**Skills and code execution are emerging as the more context-optimized answer.** A skill "is becoming a replacement in a lot of ways for MCP cuz it's a lot more context optimized" [0:15:09], because a skill's instructions load only when relevant rather than sitting in the prompt permanently. See [skills](./skills.md), [progressive disclosure](./progressive-disclosure.md), and [code execution](./code-execution.md) for the alternatives.

**Setup friction and early production gaps round out the list.** Connecting servers by hand is tedious: "you have to click into it and you have to figure out the JSON configuration to connect it and then you have to go and do that for the next one and the next one. It actually is a bit of a hassle." [0:01:14] And early MCP shipped without the essentials: "It was essentially still a toy. security vulnerabilities, no authentication, documentation was lacking at best, and there was no way to deploy remote MCP servers." [0:00:36] Distributed MCP deployments also inherit classic systems problems, from "testing complexity... edge case explosions" [0:18:46] to "increased surface area for any kind of cyber security attack" [0:19:44] to error attribution where "if you don't have very good logging and monitoring and tracing set up, it can be impossible to know when one node fails." [0:21:08]

> **Contradiction:** MCP is framed both as a maturing production tool and as still-immature. "Build and Ship Any MCP Server in MINUTES" calls the early protocol "essentially still a toy. security vulnerabilities, no authentication" [0:00:36], while its own later segments and the Docker walkthrough present remote deployment and one-click installs as largely solved. The gaps are real but closing fast, so treat the "toy" verdict as a snapshot of MCP's first months, not its current state.

## Part of

- [Model Context Protocol (MCP)](./mcp.md) - the protocol whose limitations this page catalogs.

## Contrasts with

- [Skills](./skills.md) - the more token-efficient, load-on-demand alternative to always-on MCP tools.
- [Code Execution](./code-execution.md) - calling tools from code instead of flooding the prompt with definitions.
- [Progressive Disclosure](./progressive-disclosure.md) - revealing capability only when needed, the antidote to tool overload.
- [Remote MCP Server](./remote-mcp-server.md) - An MCP server hosted in the cloud rather than run locally, making tool access scalable, shareable, and deployable behind a production URL.

## Related

- [Context Engineering](./context-engineering.md) - the discipline MCP bloat directly undermines.
- [Context Rot](./context-rot.md) - the degradation that oversized tool sets accelerate.
- [Agent Security](./agent-security.md) - the auth and sandboxing early MCP lacked.
- [Build Your Own MCP Server](./build-your-own-mcp-server.md) - where you design against these traps.
- [Agent Protocols](./agent-protocols.md)
- [Agent Teams](./agent-teams.md) - splitting tools across specialized agents to avoid overload.
- [Knowledge Graphs](./knowledge-graphs.md)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)](./rag.md)
- [MCP Transports](./mcp-transports.md) - The ways an MCP client and server talk: stdio, where the client launches the server as a fast local subprocess, versus SSE and its successor streamable HTTP for remote servers.
- [MCP Authentication with OAuth](./mcp-oauth.md) - Putting an OAuth provider (e.g. GitHub) in front of an MCP server as an authentication gateway so only authorized users can reach its tools.

## Tools

- [MCP](../entities/tools/mcp.md) - the servers whose problems are described here.
- [Docker](../entities/tools/docker.md) - removes the JSON setup friction with one-click installs.
- [Ask Gordon](../entities/tools/ask-gordon.md) - The AI agent built directly into Docker Desktop and wired to the MCP Toolkit by default, useful as a quick smoke test for MCP servers before connecting an external client (though its small model gets overwhelmed by large tool lists).
- [Claude Code](../entities/tools/claude-code.md) - where MCP tool definitions consume nearly half the context window.

## Sources

- [The BIG Problem with MCP Servers (and the Solution!)](../sources/the-big-problem-with-mcp-servers-and-the-solution.md) - "[0:02:23] the MCP tools alone are taking 97,000 tokens. That is 48% of the context available for Claude Sonnet 4.5."
- [Claude Skills Aren't Just for Claude - Here's How to Build Them for ANY Agent](../sources/claude-skills-arent-just-for-claude-heres-how-to-build-them-for-any-agent.md) - "[0:03:44] other methods like MCP servers, the problem there is we're giving a ton of tools up front to the agent even if it never needs to use them in a specific conversation. That is bad."
- [I Built My Second Brain with Claude Code + Obsidian + Skills (Here's How)](../sources/i-built-my-second-brain-with-claude-code-obsidian-skills-heres-how.md) - "[0:07:53] with MCP servers or any other way to give tools to our agent, we have to describe all of the tools upfront"
- [AI Exploded in 2025 - Here's Everything That Happened](../sources/ai-exploded-in-2025-heres-everything-that-happened.md) - "[0:15:09] it's becoming a replacement in a lot of ways for MCP cuz it's a lot more context optimized"
- [Build and Ship Any MCP Server in MINUTES (Full Guide)](../sources/build-and-ship-any-mcp-server-in-minutes-full-guide.md) - "[0:00:36] It was essentially still a toy. security vulnerabilities, no authentication, documentation was lacking at best, and there was no way to deploy remote MCP servers."
- [Docker Just Made Using MCP Servers 100x Easier (One Click Installs!)](../sources/docker-just-made-using-mcp-servers-100x-easier-one-click-installs.md) - "[0:01:14] you have to click into it and you have to figure out the JSON configuration to connect it and then you have to go and do that for the next one and the next one. It actually is a bit of a hassle"
- [Build an ARMY of AI Agents on Autopilot with Archon, Here's How](../sources/build-an-army-of-ai-agents-on-autopilot-with-archon-heres-how.md) - "[0:03:49] specialized agents are powerful because LLMs get overwhelmed very quickly if you give them too many tools because every single tool is just increasing the length of the prompt to the LLM"
- [Google is Quietly Revolutionizing AI Agents (This is HUGE)](../sources/google-is-quietly-revolutionizing-ai-agents-this-is-huge.md) - "[0:21:08] when we have these distributed systems, error attribution can be very difficult. If you don't have very good logging and monitoring and tracing set up, it can be impossible to know when one node fails."
- [Claude MCP has Changed AI Forever - Here's What You NEED to Know](../sources/claude-mcp-has-changed-ai-forever-heres-what-you-need-to-know.md) - "[0:04:48] you get to this point where you're developing a lot of redundant code for yourself or individual people are recreating these tools to do a very similar thing over and over and over again and that is why we need standardization"
- [Pi Coding Agent + Archon: Build ANY AI Coding Workflow (No Claude Code Bloat)](../sources/pi-coding-agent-archon-build-any-ai-coding-workflow-no-claude-code-bloat.md) - "[0:00:17] there have been a lot of problems with insane token usage and just bugs in the platform because they're shipping things so quickly."
- [Why is Everyone Missing This with AI Agents?! (Memory + Tools that Scale)](../sources/why-is-everyone-missing-this-with-ai-agents-memory-tools-that-scale.md) - "[0:02:19] this is what MCP wishes it had"
- [AI Code That Fixes Itself (An MCP You Can Try Now)](../sources/ai-code-that-fixes-itself-an-mcp-you-can-try-now.md) - "[0:13:27] the first one is a tool literally to run the hallucination check script... now instead of the output coming to us, it's going right back to the AI coding assistant because it's using this MCP server."
