mcpick-plus

Enhanced CLI tool for dynamically managing MCP server configurations in Claude Code. A fork of mcpick with added plugin support and cost analysis dashboard.

What's New in mcpick-plus

• Plugin Management - Discover and toggle MCP servers bundled in Claude Code plugins
• Cost Dashboard - Analyze token usage, startup time, and memory impact of your MCP servers
• Future-Ready - Architecture prepared for sub-agent and slash command management

Installation

# One-time usage
bunx mcpick-plus

# Global installation
bun install -g mcpick-plus

# Development (link globally)
bun install && bun run build && bun link

The Problem

Claude Code loads all MCP servers from your configuration at startup, regardless of whether you need them. With plugins, this gets even more complex as plugins can bundle their own MCP servers. This can lead to:

• 🐌 Slower Claude Code startup times
• 💾 High context token usage (66,000+ tokens!)
• 🧠 Cognitive overload from too many available tools
• 🔍 No visibility into plugin-provided MCPs

Features

Interactive Menu

┌  mcpick-plus - Enhanced MCP Configuration Manager
│
◆  What would you like to do?
│  ● Enable / Disable MCP servers (Toggle MCP servers on/off)
│  ○ Manage plugins (Toggle plugins and their MCPs)        [NEW]
│  ○ MCP cost dashboard (Analyze token & performance costs) [NEW]
│  ○ Backup config
│  ○ Add MCP server
│  ○ Restore from backup
│  ○ Load profile
│  ○ Save profile
│  ○ Exit
└

Plugin Management

Toggle entire plugins on/off to control their bundled MCP servers:

┌  Manage plugins
│
◆  Select plugins to enable:
│  ◼ plugin-database (3 MCPs - user)
│  ◼ plugin-web-tools (2 MCPs - project)
│  ◻ plugin-experimental (5 MCPs - user)
└

Plugin discovery locations:

• ~/.claude/plugins/ (user scope)
• .claude/plugins/ (project scope)

Cost Analysis Dashboard

Understand the impact of your MCP configuration:

  MCP Cost Analysis Dashboard
  ═══════════════════════════════════════════

  Servers Enabled
  ───────────────────────────────────────────
    user         8 servers
    project      2 servers
    plugin       5 servers
    Total        15 servers

  Performance Impact (Estimated)
  ───────────────────────────────────────────
    Startup time   +5.3s
    Memory usage   +450MB

  Token Budget Impact
  ───────────────────────────────────────────
    Context cost   ~7.5k tokens
    Output risk    3 servers may hit 10k limit

┌ Optimization Tips ────────────────────────
│   - Consider using profiles to switch between server sets
│   - High startup time - consider disabling unused servers
└

Scope Support

MCPick-plus supports four MCP server scopes:

Scope	Description	Storage Location
Local	Project-specific servers	~/.claude.json → projects[cwd].mcpServers
Project	Shared via .mcp.json	.mcp.json in project root
User	Global servers	~/.claude.json → mcpServers
Plugin	Bundled in installed plugins	~/.claude/plugins/*/.mcp.json

Profiles

Load predefined sets of MCP servers instantly:

# Apply a profile
mcpick-plus --profile database
mcpick-plus -p database

# Save current config as a profile
mcpick-plus --save-profile mysetup
mcpick-plus -s mysetup

# List available profiles
mcpick-plus --list-profiles
mcpick-plus -l

Token Cost Education

Understanding MCP costs:

Metric	Impact
Startup time	~200-500ms per stdio server
Memory	~10-50MB per server
Context tokens	~500-2000 tokens per server description
Output limits	10k token warning, 25k max (configurable via MAX_MCP_OUTPUT_TOKENS)

Tips to reduce costs:

• Use profiles to switch between focused server sets
• Disable servers you're not actively using
• Consider HTTP/SSE servers for lower startup overhead
• Use the dashboard to identify high-cost servers

File Locations

• Claude Config: ~/.claude.json
• Project Config: .mcp.json
• MCPick Registry: ~/.claude/mcpick/servers.json
• Backups: ~/.claude/mcpick/backups/
• Profiles: ~/.claude/mcpick/profiles/
• Plugin State: ~/.claude/mcpick/plugin-state.json

Safety Features

• Non-destructive: Only modifies relevant configuration sections
• Backup integration: Creates backups before major changes
• Validation: Ensures all configurations are valid
• Plugin isolation: Plugin changes only affect plugin state, not plugin files

Future Features

mcpick-plus is prepared for future Claude Code features:

• Sub-agent discovery - When Claude Code exposes agent APIs
• Slash command management - Browse and organize custom commands
• Enhanced cost tracking - Real-time usage monitoring

Requirements

• Bun 1.0+ (or Node.js 22+)
• Claude Code installed

Credits

Fork of mcpick by Scott Spence. Enhanced with plugin support and cost analysis.

License

MIT