[mcp-analysis] MCP Structural Analysis - 2026-10-14

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MCP Structural Analysis — 2026-10-14

Tested 11 representative tool calls across 10 GitHub MCP toolsets (one via the mcpscripts wrapper). Best-rated: github_context, list_pull_requests (with explicit fields), and the list_workflows wrapper — all 5/5. Worst-rated: search_code, which hit a secondary rate limit (429) for the second time in 3 days. A recurring structural risk emerged across all three days of data: three separate toolsets (issues, code_security, search) returned empty arrays today purely because their sole matching item was removed by integrity/secrecy policy filtering — an agent cannot distinguish "nothing exists" from "something exists but was filtered."

Metric	Value
Tools Analyzed	11
Total Tokens (Today)	5,735
Average Usefulness Rating	3.00/5
Best Rated Tools	github_context, list_pull_requests, list_workflows — 5/5
Worst Rated Tool	search_code — 1/5 (rate-limited)

Full Structural Analysis Report

Usefulness Ratings for Agentic Work

Tool	Toolset	Rating	Assessment
github_context	workflow_context	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	Excellent — zero-overhead, directly actionable identity fields
list_pull_requests	pull_requests	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	Excellent — fields filter yields compact, fully actionable records
list_workflows (mcpscripts)	actions	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	Excellent — clean flat JSON, explicit pagination, no bloat
get_file_contents	repos	⭐⭐⭐	Adequate — body duplicated twice, fixed ~3.4KB icon overhead
list_discussions	discussions	⭐⭐⭐	Adequate — good fields, heavy fixed overhead
get_label	labels	⭐⭐⭐	Adequate — clean payload, poor overhead ratio for trivial lookup
list_issues	issues	⭐⭐	Limited — empty due to integrity-policy filtering of the only match
list_code_scanning_alerts	code_security	⭐⭐	Limited — empty due to secrecy-policy filtering of the only match
search_users	users	⭐⭐	Limited — no dedicated get_user tool; worst payload-to-overhead ratio
search_issues	search	⭐⭐	Limited — substituted for search_code; also filtered to empty
search_code	search	⭐	Poor — 429 rate-limited, zero usable data

Schema Analysis

Tool	Type	Depth	Key Fields	Notes
github_context	markdown	1	actor, repository, workspace, workflow-run-id	Prompt-injected, no MCP call
get_file_contents	object	3	content, structuredContent, resource.text/uri	File body duplicated in two places
list_issues	array	1	(empty — filtered)	Integrity-policy filter notice only
list_pull_requests	array	3	number, title, state, head.ref, base.ref, head.sha	Clean with explicit fields
list_code_scanning_alerts	array	1	(empty — filtered)	Secrecy-policy filter notice only
list_discussions	object	3	discussions[], pageInfo, totalCount	Explicit cursor pagination
get_label	object	1	name, color, description	Flat, but heavy fixed overhead
search_users	object	2	items[].login/id/avatar_url, total_count	Sparse useful payload
search_issues	array	1	(empty — filtered)	Same filtering pattern as list_issues
search_code	object	1	error: 429	No schema — hard failure
list_workflows (mcpscripts)	object	2	total_count, workflows[].name/path/state	Best-in-class pagination metadata

Response Size Analysis

Toolset	Avg Tokens (30d)	Tools Tested
repos	2,620	get_file_contents
discussions	990	list_discussions
users	922	search_users
labels	892	get_label
search	526	search_code, search_issues, search_users
pull_requests	312	list_pull_requests
issues	303	list_issues
actions	162	list_workflows
code_security	87	list_code_scanning_alerts
workflow_context	78	github_context

Tool-by-Tool Analysis (2026-10-14)

Tool	Toolset	Tokens	Schema	Rating	Notes
github_context	workflow_context	85	markdown/1	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	Zero overhead, non-item run so most fields were #false placeholders
get_file_contents	repos	1,380	object/3	⭐⭐⭐	Same LICENSE file/SHA as prior run; 2x payload duplication
list_issues	issues	90	array/1	⭐⭐	Sole open issue filtered by integrity policy — 3rd consecutive day
list_pull_requests	pull_requests	115	array/3	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	fields filter eliminated all overhead
list_code_scanning_alerts	code_security	90	array/1	⭐⭐	1 alert filtered by secrecy policy — same pattern both prior days
list_discussions	discussions	1,010	object/3	⭐⭐⭐	totalCount=11,414; fixed icon overhead dominates
get_label	labels	890	object/1	⭐⭐⭐	Clean 3-field payload buried in fixed overhead
search_users	users	910	object/2	⭐⭐	No dedicated get_user; worst overhead ratio
search_issues	search	95	array/1	⭐⭐	Substitute for search_code; also filtered to empty
search_code	search	900	object/1	⭐	429 rate limit, 2nd time in 3 days (succeeded on 10-13 with fields)
list_workflows	actions	170	object/2	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	mcpscripts wrapper, consistently best ratio all 3 days

30-Day Trend Summary

Metric	Value
Data Points	32 (3 days: 2026-10-12, 10-13, 10-14)
Average Daily Tokens	~7,243
Daily Totals	10-12: 10,465 · 10-13: 5,529 · 10-14: 5,735
Average Rating Trend	Stable (search_code rate-limiting and issues/code_security filtering recur every day measured)

Visualizations

Response Size by Toolset

Usefulness Ratings

Daily Token Trend

Size vs Usefulness

Recommendations

• High-value tools (4-5⭐): github_context (free), list_pull_requests/other list tools with explicit fields, and the mcpscripts list_workflows wrapper — prefer these patterns whenever available.
• Tools needing improvement: list_issues and list_code_scanning_alerts should surface filtered-item counts more prominently (currently a buried text notice) so agents don't silently treat policy-filtered results as "nothing found." search_code needs backoff/retry handling for its frequent 429s.
• Context-efficient tools: github_context (85 tok), list_workflows wrapper (170 tok), list_pull_requests with fields (115 tok).
• Context-heavy tools: get_file_contents (1,380 tok for a 1KB file), list_discussions (1,010 tok), search_users/get_label (~900 tok) — all driven by a fixed ~3.4KB server icon/_meta payload attached to every stock GitHub MCP response, not by the actual data.

References:

• §38559944860

Generated by 🔍 GitHub MCP Structural Analysis · claude · agent · 111.5 AIC · ⊞ 8K · ◷

• expires on Oct 15, 2026, 4:01 AM UTC-08:00

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This discussion was automatically closed because it expired on 2026-10-15T12:01:47.937Z.

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