# jmunch-mcp

A transparent proxy in front of other MCP servers. It swaps bulky tool responses for queryable handles and cuts token spend.

- MCP server · `type=mcp` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf (Devin Desktop), Cline, Zed, Gemini CLI · ★ 33
- Author: jgravelle
- License: MIT · policy=link-only · description only; the file stays with the author
- Source: https://github.com/jgravelle/jmunch-mcp
- Updated: 2026-09-01
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/mcp/jmunch-mcp

## What it does

jmunch-mcp sits between your agent and any upstream MCP server. Every call still passes through, but a fat payload does not arrive whole: it becomes a handle the agent drills into with a handful of verbs — `peek`, `slice`, `search`, `aggregate`, `describe`, `list_handles`. Tabular results land in SQLite; JSON goes to a tree backend queried with JSONPath. Benchmarks against the GitHub server and Firecrawl came out at 88.3% and 98.9% fewer tokens.

Setup starts with `jmunch-mcp init`. It scans your MCP client configs, running processes and a short catalog of common upstreams, then renders a checklist and writes one `<name>.toml` per pick into `./configs/`. Your client then launches `jmunch-mcp --config <path>` in place of the upstream. There is also a gateway for apps that speak the OpenAI or Anthropic HTTP API: `pip install 'jmunch-mcp[gateway]'`, then `jmunch-mcp gateway --config configs/gateway.example.toml`, and point the app's `base_url` at `http://127.0.0.1:7879`. A read-only dashboard runs on `http://127.0.0.1:7878`.

The code is MIT, so you can modify, redistribute or embed it in commercial products. The upstream servers you wrap keep their own terms — check each one before you redistribute. Dashboard numbers stay empty until a proxy has recorded calls, so run your client through a wrapped server first.

## Requirements
- Needs: Python and uv (commands run via uvx)

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

**Platform CLI**
```bash
claude mcp add jmunch-mcp -- uvx jmunch-mcp
```
uvx runs the command named after the package; if the README names another one, use uvx --from jmunch-mcp <command>

### Codex

**Platform CLI**
```bash
codex mcp add jmunch-mcp -- uvx jmunch-mcp
```
uvx runs the command named after the package; if the README names another one, use uvx --from jmunch-mcp <command>

### Cursor

**Config file**
File `.cursor/mcp.json`:
```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "jmunch-mcp": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "jmunch-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}
```
uvx runs the command named after the package; if the README names another one, use uvx --from jmunch-mcp <command>

### GitHub Copilot

**Config file**
File `.vscode/mcp.json`:
```json
{
    "servers": {
        "jmunch-mcp": {
            "type": "stdio",
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "jmunch-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}
```
uvx runs the command named after the package; if the README names another one, use uvx --from jmunch-mcp <command>

### Gemini CLI

**Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini mcp add jmunch-mcp uvx jmunch-mcp
```
uvx runs the command named after the package; if the README names another one, use uvx --from jmunch-mcp <command>

## When to use it
- fit GitHub MCP responses into context without truncating them
- search a huge scraper JSON response without loading all of it
- compute aggregates over a tabular tool result
- add token trimming to an OpenAI API app without touching its code
- see how many tokens each upstream burns

## Example prompts
- Wrap the GitHub MCP with jmunch-mcp and show me the token savings
- Run `peek` on the last Firecrawl handle
- Run `jmunch-mcp init` and wrap filesystem and fetch

## Similar
- [REA](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/mcp/rea.md) — MCP server · ★ 386989
- [GitHub](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/mcp/github.md) — MCP server · ★ 33918
- [Netdata](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/mcp/netdata.md) — MCP server · ★ 81115
- [browser-use](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/mcp/browser-use.md) — MCP server · ★ 119160
- [Codebase Memory](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/mcp/codebase-memory.md) — MCP server · ★ 47392
- [mcp-server](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/mcp/mcp-server.md) — MCP server · ★ 43872

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