MCP Startup Tax
- Entity ID:
ent-20260419-mcpstartax0 - Type:
concept - Scope:
shared - Status:
active - Aliases: MCP list_tools startup cost, MCP discovery tax
Description
Dominant latency factor in Claude Code startup for users with 5+ MCP servers installed. Each MCP server process must complete a list_tools discovery call before the session starts. 7 servers averaging 400ms each = 2.8s startup overhead minimum before first message. MCP Tool Search's lazy loading (v2.1.40) eliminated the cost of tool DEFINITIONS but not server process spawn — so the tax still applies, it just shrank.
Key claims
- MCP startup tax dominates for users with 5+ servers
Relations
- MCP Startup Tax --[depends_on]--> MCP Integration
- ToolSearch System --[fixed]--> MCP Startup Tax