MCP server · Developer tools
terse MCP proxy
by inth3shadows
Shrinks the tool results your AI reads, so it spends fewer tokens, without changing any of the actual data.
terse is a small helper that sits between your AI assistant and another tool server. It makes the answers coming back from that server more compact, so your AI uses fewer tokens to read them. It is handy if you use an AI assistant a lot and want your token budget to go further.
What is an MCP server? The 30-second version
On its own, your AI can only chat with you. An MCP server is a small helper program that gives your AI a new skill or a connection to an app or service. terse is a special kind of helper: it does not add a new app, it sits in front of another MCP server and makes that server's answers smaller before your AI reads them. So your AI still gets the same information, just in a denser form that costs fewer tokens.
What this MCP server does
You ask your AI to do something that uses another tool server, like looking up a list of issues. That server sends back its answer, often as long, repetitive text. terse catches that answer on the way and rewrites it in a shorter form, removing repeated keys and repeated values but keeping every piece of data. Your AI then reads the shorter version and answers you. You can also ask terse for a report of how many tokens it has saved.
What you can do with it
- Wrap any existing MCP server so its answers are more compact
- Keep every value exactly the same, with a check that the original can be rebuilt
- See how many tokens you saved with a simple stats command
- Optionally send only the changes when the same tool is called again
- Test the compression on a sample without connecting a server
- Turn off compression for tools where it does not help
Try asking your AI
- “Show me the open issues in our repo, and use terse so it does not eat my tokens”
- “How many tokens has terse saved me this week?”
- “Check that the compressed version of this sample is exactly the same as the original”
- “Wrap our project tool server with terse and then list the latest orders”
What it gives back to you
You get the same data your AI would have received anyway, just in a shorter form. In the chat, your AI answers as usual, and you can also ask for a savings report that shows numbers like tokens saved and how many results were compressed. terse never shows you a summary or a shortened list of rows; it only removes repetition.
Before you start
What you need
- Python 3.11 or newer
- The uv tool (or pipx) to install terse
- Another MCP server for terse to sit in front of
Good to know
terse is lossless by default, but it does have optional lossy settings that can shorten or drop fields if you turn them on, so leave those off unless you are sure.
Install it with your AI
Add terse MCP proxy to your AI, no technical skills needed
You don't install anything by hand. You copy one prompt, paste it into an AI that can work on your computer, and it checks, installs and connects the server for you, asking you when it needs something.
Sign in to get the install prompt
Members get a ready-made prompt that lets the Claude desktop app check terse MCP proxy, install it and connect it for them, step by step. You don't need any technical skills: you copy, paste and answer a few questions. Your connected AI can also find and install any of the 4,361 MCP servers here for you.
Who it's for
People who use an AI assistant heavily with tool servers and want to make their token budget last longer, especially those working with long lists of records.
