Workshop: Build a 5-Tool MCP Server That Cuts Your AI Token Usage by 95%

What We Are Building Let me show you a pattern I use in every project now. We are going to build a starter MCP server with five tools that replace the expensive file-by-file crawling LLMs do when they explore your codebase. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a working server that can cut your token usage by 60-75% immediately — and you will understand the architecture to push that to 95%. The core idea: stop giving models files, start giving them answers. Prerequisites Node.js 18+ A TypeScript project you want to use as your test codebase Basic familiarity with how Claude or GPT tool-calling works The MCP SDK : npm install @modelcontextprotocol/sdk Step 1: Understand the Problem Here is what happens every time an LLM explores your repo without structured tooling: Step What the model reads Tokens burned package.json Dependencies, scripts ~800 Project structure Directories, entry points ~1,200 6-8 source files Business logic, relationships 15,000-30,000 Config, tests, types Suppo