Evidence record EV-0022

Search-and-execute meta-tools cut catalogue tokens by 99% in production

PayPal authors report (preprint) that exposing two meta-tools, search and execute, over 2,000+ MCP tools cut tool-token consumption in production from 140.2k tokens (70.1% of context) to 1.3k tokens (0.8%).

Preprint · Measurement · Retrieved 8 October 2026

Evidence class: Preprint. Unreviewed. Many are by one author or a small team, and some authors have a stake in the result. Most AX research is in this class today. Pattern tags: context-budget, dynamic-tools, cost.

Effect, as the source reports it

MCP tool-token consumption per query. Baseline: Full tool schemas: 140.2k tokens (70.1% of context). With the change: tool_search and execute_tool meta-tools: 1.3k tokens (0.8% of context). Direction: decrease. Size: About 99% reduction. Sample: 2,000+ tools across 200+ MCP servers, in production.

Agent profile

Note on models: Described as model-agnostic; no models named in the abstract.

Conflicts of interest

The authors describe their own production system at PayPal; this is a deployment report by the people who built it.

Source

Hybrid Semantic Tool Discovery for Enterprise MCP Gateway: Architecture and Implementation, arXiv, Olympia Saha, Amy Wang, Srinivasan Manoharan, 25 August 2026, arXiv:2608.23992. Retrieved 8 October 2026; verification: abstract-only.

Every number in this record was checked against the live arXiv abstract page on 2026-10-08. The full text was not re-checked.

Limitations

Preprint, not peer reviewed.
Token accounting only; the abstract reports no task-success or selection-accuracy comparison.

For designers

For a large tool catalogue, let the agent search for tools instead of loading every schema up front. Check selection accuracy separately, because token savings say nothing about it.

FIND-06: There are few enough tools to choose from

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