Default MCP setups load every tool's JSON schema into the prompt on every turn and round-trip each intermediate result back through the model. Let the agent search for the few tools it needs and orchestrate them in code instead.
Call Tools as Code, Not by Injecting Every Tool Definition
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More in Coding Assistants
💻Coding Assistants
Often cuts output tokens 40-70% on edits to large files, varies by file size
Ask for the Patch, Not the Whole File
When editing an existing file, tell the assistant to return only the changed lines as a diff or snippet instead of regenerating the entire file.
💻Coding Assistants
often 30-60% on long sessions
Run /clear Between Tasks in Claude Code Instead of Letting Context Pile Up
Claude Code resends the whole conversation every turn. Finishing one task and starting an unrelated one in the same thread means you keep paying for stale tool output and dead files.
💻Coding Assistants
10-30% on context-heavy chats
Add a .cursorignore So Cursor Stops Indexing Your node_modules
Cursor's @codebase and automatic context can pull in build artifacts, lockfiles, and vendored dependencies. A .cursorignore file keeps that noise out of every prompt.