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OneTool

🧿 One MCP for developers - No tool tax, no context rot.
100+ tools including Brave, Google, Context7, Excalidraw, AWS, Version Checker, Excel, File Ops, Database, Image Vision, Playwright & Chrome DevTools Utils and many more.

PyPI License Python GitHub stars

Works with Claude Code or any MCP client


The Problem

Each MCP server consumes 3K-30K tokens per request. Connect 5 servers and you've burned 55K tokens before the conversation starts. Connect 10+ and you're at 100K tokens.

The math is brutal: Claude Opus 4.5 at $5/M input tokens, 20 days × 10 conversations × 10 messages × 3K tokens = $30/month per MCP server - even if you never use the tools.

And then there's context rot - your AI literally gets dumber as you add more tools (Chroma Research, 2025).

The Solution

OneTool is one MCP server that exposes tools as a Python API. Instead of reading tool definitions, your agent writes code:

>>> brave.search(query="react docs 2026")

Configure one MCP server. Use unlimited tools.

"Agents scale better by writing code to call tools instead. This reduces the token usage from 150,000 tokens to 2,000 tokens...a cost saving of 98.7%"

— Anthropic Engineering

96% fewer tokens. 30× lower cost. No context rot.

📖 Read the full story


Install

Requires uv:

uv tool install 'onetool-mcp[all]'   # everything
onetool init --config ~/.onetool

Add to Claude Code:

claude mcp add onetool -- onetool --config ~/.onetool/onetool.yaml --secrets ~/.onetool/secrets.yaml

Or manually add to ~/.claude/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "onetool": {
      "command": "onetool",
      "args": ["--config", "/Users/yourname/.onetool/onetool.yaml", "--secrets", "/Users/yourname/.onetool/secrets.yaml"]
    }
  }
}

That's it. All 100+ tools work out of the box.

Verify: onetool init validate --config ~/.onetool/onetool.yaml

📖 Full installation guide


Use from the CLI

Works as an MCP server and as a direct CLI — no MCP client needed. Useful for agent harnesses, scripts, and automation:

# Start a persistent execution host (keeps tool state across calls)
onetool direct start --config ~/.onetool/onetool.yaml

# Run any tool — JSON output, pipeable to jq
onetool direct run "ot.packs()" --format json | jq '.[0].name'
onetool direct run "brave.search(query='latest AI news')" --format raw

📖 Direct usage guide


Features

Feature Description
96% Token Savings ~2K tokens no matter how many tools you add
100+ Built-in Tools Web search, AWS, databases, file ops, diagrams, conversions
Explicit Execution See exactly what runs — >>> brave.search(q="AI")
Dynamic AWS Proxy all 57+ AWSlabs MCP servers; SSO and credentials handled
Live Whiteboard Draw diagrams with a Mermaid-compatible DSL via Excalidraw
MCP Server Proxy Wrap existing MCP servers without the tool tax
Encrypted Secrets age-encrypted secrets.yaml backed by your OS keychain
Forge Tools Build new tools as part of the conversation
Image Vision Routes to a cheaper, better vision model via ot_image (img). Zero host tokens. Supports local files, URLs, clipboard; PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, TIFF, HEIC, AVIF, SVG.
Smart Context ot_context (ctx) — SQLite+FTS5 store. Search and navigate large outputs without filling the context window.
Smart Tools Delegate to cheaper LLMs (10× savings)
Security Layers AST validation, path boundaries, output sanitisation

Tools

27+ packs, 230+ tools ready to use:

Pack Tools Extra Description
aws whoami, login, start_packs, roles [dev] Dynamic AWS proxy (57+ servers)
brave search, news [util] Web and news search
chrome_util highlight_element, guide_user [dev] Browser annotations (DevTools)
context7 search, doc [dev] Library documentation
convert pdf_to_md, docx_to_md, pptx_to_md [util] Document conversion
db query, schema, tables [dev] Database operations
diagram create, get_playground_url [dev] Mermaid / Kroki diagrams
excel read, write, query [util] Excel files
file read, write, grep, slice, toc [util] File operations
ground search [util] Google Grounding search
knowledge search, ask, write, read, grep [util] RAG knowledge base (FTS5+vector)
mem write, read, search, grep, ask, inspect, query [util] Persistent memory
ot_forge create_ext, validate_ext, install_skills Scaffold new tool packs
ot_context (ctx) write, read, search, grep, slice, toc Smart context store (SQLite+FTS5)
ot_image (img) load, load_batch, ask, summary, list, delete, purge [util] Image vision via dedicated model
ot_llm transform, transform_file LLM-powered transforms
ot_secrets init, encrypt, audit, rotate Secrets encryption
ot_timer start, elapsed, list Named timers
ot help, tools, stats, skills Introspection
package npm, pypi, cargo [dev] Package versions
play_util highlight_element, guide_user [dev] Browser annotations (Playwright)
ripgrep search, count [dev] Fast code search
tavily search, search_batch, research [util] AI-native search
webfetch fetch, fetch_batch [dev] Web fetching
whiteboard open, draw, screenshot, save [dev] Live Excalidraw canvas

📖 Complete tools reference — full summary table with all 230+ tools


MCP Server Proxy

Wrap any existing MCP server and call it explicitly - simple yaml config without the tool tax:

# .onetool/onetool.yaml
servers:
  chrome_devtools:
    type: stdio
    command: npx
    args: ["-y", "@anthropic-ai/chrome-devtools-mcp@latest"]
  github:
    type: stdio
    command: npx
    args: ["-y", "@anthropic-ai/github-mcp-server@latest"]
>>> mcp.call(server="github", tool="get_file_contents", arguments={"path": "README.md"})

📖 Configuration guide


Extending

Drop a Python file, get a pack. No registration, no config:

# .onetool/tools/wiki.py
pack = "wiki"

def summary(*, title: str) -> str:
    """Get Wikipedia article summary."""
    import httpx
    url = f"https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/summary/{title}"
    return httpx.get(url).json().get("extract", "Not found")
>>> wiki.summary(title="Python_(programming_language)")

📖 Creating tools guide


Documentation


References


Telemetry

OneTool sends anonymous startup pings (event type, version, OS). No personal data. Opt out: export DO_NOT_TRACK=1 or set telemetry.enabled: false in onetool.yaml. Details


Issues

Check for existing issues first:

Raise a new issue: github.com/beycom/onetool-mcp/issues/new


Support

If you find OneTool useful:

Ko-fi


License

GPLv3

Release files for onetool-mcp 2.2.2

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

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Source distribution for onetool-mcp 2.2.2
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Table of built distributions (wheels) for onetool-mcp 2.2.2
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onetool_mcp-2.2.2-py3-none-any.whl Python 3 none any Details

Total release size: 13.9 MB

Release files / onetool_mcp-2.2.2.tar.gz

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