Discuss Anthropic CCAR-P Exam Topic 4 Question 6

You are supporting a team whose Claude Code sessions consistently load 60 or more MCP tools from many servers, exhausting context budget before the session begins.

Which adjustment most directly addresses this issue without removing capability?

AEnable Tool Search so tool definitions are deferred and discovered on demand rather than loaded into context upfront.

BDisable every MCP server in the configuration to free up context budget, accepting that the team loses all tool access and cannot perform any MCP-dependent task in the session.

CIncrease the prompt's verbosity with additional instructions and context, which consumes more of the context budget rather than reducing the tool-definition overhead causing the issue.

DAdd additional MCP servers to give the team more capability, which increases rather than reduces the number of tool definitions loaded into the session's context budget.

Suggested Answer: A

Tool Search applies progressive discovery to a large tool catalog. Instead of inserting every MCP tool's complete JSON schema and description into the initial context, Claude receives limited discovery information and loads the full definitions only when a task requires them. This preserves the available context for instructions, repository content, conversation history, and tool results without removing the underlying capabilities.

Anthropic's Claude Code documentation states that Tool Search keeps MCP context usage low by deferring tool definitions until Claude needs them. Only the tools actually selected enter the working context. Claude Code MCP Tool Search

Anthropic's advanced-tool-use guidance also describes conventional multi-server configurations consuming tens of thousands of tokens before work begins, while on-demand discovery substantially reduces that overhead. Advanced Tool Use

Option B solves context pressure by destroying required functionality. Option C worsens the constraint by adding more prompt tokens. Option D expands the exact source of context bloat.

The team should also improve server and tool descriptions so discovery returns the correct tools, monitor tool-selection quality, and keep frequently required foundational tools non-deferred only when evaluations justify the additional context cost.

Study Guide references/topics: MCP scaling; Tool Search; progressive discovery; deferred schemas; context-budget management; tool-selection accuracy.

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7 comments · newest first

Shawna 2 days ago

Surprised that C) would actually make things worse!

Louann 7 days ago

Disagree, B) would just kill our access to tools.

Isaiah 12 days ago

A) is definitely the way to go!

Yolando 17 days ago

Increasing verbosity sounds tempting, but I feel like it would just add to the problem instead of solving it.

Mari 22 days ago

This question reminds me of a practice one where we had to balance context budget and tool access. I think deferring tool definitions is the way to go.

Hui 28 days ago

I'm not entirely sure, but I think disabling all MCP servers would just make things worse. We need those tools, right?

Tegan 1 month ago

I remember discussing how enabling Tool Search can help manage context budget issues. It seems like the best option here.

Anthropic CCAR-P Exam - Topic 4 Question 6 Discussion