MCP Tool Design: Separating Structure Metadata from Content
Potential-Art7696 · reddit · 2026-08-25
The author shares a design iteration for a project mapping tool integrated with the official MCP Registry. The initial design had a single "read" tool returning all data (node names, task counts, and content). Based on community feedback, the author realized this allowed the AI to access sensitive content even for simple "existence checks" (e.g., duplicate prevention). The solution was to split the tool into two:
- listprojectnodes: Returns structural metadata only (ID, name, count), zero content.
- getprojectoverview: Returns full state including task text, used only when necessary.
This approach acts like a permission contract per tool, effectively minimizing unnecessary data exposure.
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