[Feature Request] Meta-MCP Server for Tool Discovery and Filtering

Problem Description

When using the Docker MCP Toolkit with multiple MCP servers enabled, IDEs face significant challenges:

1. Token Usage: Every message includes tool descriptions for hundreds of tools, consuming thousands of tokens
2. IDE Limits: Many IDEs have practical limits on the number of MCP servers they can effectively handle
3. Tool Overload: Users are overwhelmed by the sheer number of available tools
4. Discovery Issues: No built-in way to browse/filter available tools without enabling all servers

Current Impact

• Excessive API costs due to bloated context windows (every tool description loaded upfront)
• Poor IDE performance with large tool sets
• Users cannot selectively explore tools without enabling entire servers
• Manual workarounds required (like mcp-filter proxy)

Proposed Solution: Meta-MCP Server

Provide an additional MCP server that acts as a gateway/directory for other MCP servers, offering:

Core Tools

• list_mcps: List all available MCP servers with their status and basic info
• list_tools: List all tools across servers with filtering capabilities
• get_tool_details: Get detailed information about specific tools on-demand
• enable_mcp/disable_mcp: Programmatically control server enable/disable status

Advanced Filtering

• Filter by MCP server (e.g., show only GitHub tools)
• Free text search across tool names and descriptions
• Category-based filtering (filesystem, database, communication, etc.)
• Tool count limits for paginated results

Benefits

• Token Savings: Load tool specs only when needed instead of upfront (similar to RooCode issue #5373)
• Selective Discovery: Users can explore tools without overwhelming context
• Better IDE Integration: Work within IDE limits through intelligent filtering
• Cost Efficiency: Reduce API costs through smaller, on-demand context windows

Usage Example

# List all available MCP servers
list_mcps

# Show only GitHub-related tools
list_tools --filter-server github

# Search for tools containing "issue"
list_tools --search issue

# Get detailed info for a specific tool before using it
get_tool_details github:create_issue

Implementation Notes

• Meta-MCP server would be automatically available alongside regular servers
• Could proxy actual tool execution to the appropriate underlying MCP server
• Backward compatibility maintained - existing direct server connections continue to work
• Could integrate with existing docker mcp CLI commands for consistency

Architecture

[MCP Client] <-> [Meta-MCP Server] <-> [Individual MCP Servers]
                    |
                    v
             [Tool Registry/Cache]

The meta-server maintains a lightweight registry of available tools without loading full descriptions upfront.

Related Issues

• MCP Gateway & Registry: agentic-community/mcp-gateway-registry - Enterprise-ready MCP gateway with dynamic tool discovery, registry functionality, and unified access (directly implements the proposed meta-MCP server concept)
• MCP Gateway & Registry Docs: agentic-community.github.io/mcp-gateway-registry - Dynamic tool discovery and runtime MCP server enumeration features
• RooCode #5373: On-demand MCP tool specification loading
• AWS Q Developer CLI #2397: Token usage breakdown by tool/MCP
• mcp-filter project: External proxy solution for tool filtering

Environment

• Docker MCP Toolkit via Docker Desktop
• IDEs: Cursor, Windsurf, VSCode with MCP extensions