Prefer CLI Tools Over MCP Servers to Reduce Context Overhead
MCP servers are powerful, but each one adds tool definitions to your context window on every single message, even when idle. If you're using an MCP server purely for something that has a CLI equivalent, you're burning tokens unnecessarily.
Tools like gh, aws, gcloud, and sentry-cli are more context-efficient because Claude can just run them as bash commands. No persistent tool definitions, no overhead.
# Instead of configuring the GitHub MCP server just for PR operations:
gh pr list --state open
gh issue create --title "Bug fix" --body "Details here"
# Instead of an AWS MCP server for S3:
aws s3 ls s3://my-bucket/
aws s3 cp ./file.txt s3://my-bucket/
The difference adds up. If you have five MCP servers configured, that could be hundreds of tokens of tool definitions loaded into every request. With CLI tools, those tokens are only spent when Claude actually runs a command.
Run /context to see how much space your MCP tool definitions are consuming. If a server's tools are taking significant space but you only use them occasionally, consider switching to the CLI equivalent and disabling the server via /mcp.
Reserve MCP servers for tools that genuinely need persistent connections or stateful interactions, like database servers or language servers.
CLI tools cost zero tokens when idle. MCP servers don't.
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When Claude starts referencing files you've since deleted, remembering old code you've already changed, or getting confused by contradictory instructions from a long session — type /clear to wipe the slate clean. Unlike /compact which preserves context, /clear gives you a true fresh start without restarting the CLI.
Not every task needs deep reasoning. Type /fast to switch Claude Code into fast mode — same model, faster output — for quick edits, simple questions, and routine changes. Toggle it off when you need Claude to think harder on complex problems.
Long sessions eat through your context window as conversation history piles up. Type /compact to summarize the conversation so far and reclaim space — keeping Claude's understanding of what you're working on while freeing up room for more work.