Should stdio MCP servers be launched only when a tool is called?

gelembjuk · reddit · 2026-07-24

This is essentially the same proposal as the earlier post: run stdio MCP servers only when a tool call needs them, rather than keeping them alive all the time.

The motivation is the same too: most MCP servers are stateless API wrappers, so always-on processes waste RAM. The post asks whether harness libraries should change to support this on-demand lifecycle.

Related event: On-Demand MCP Server Startup Saves Hundreds of MB of RAM(2 posts)→

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