Feature proposal: MCP tool definition overhead tracking

[AgentSeal]

The problem

When you connect MCP servers to Claude Code, every tool definition gets injected into the system prompt on every API call. If you have 5 MCP servers with 40 tools, those definitions consume input tokens on every single turn -- whether you use the tools or not.

This cost is completely invisible today. Nobody tracks it.

What CodeBurn could show

• Total token cost spent on MCP tool definitions per day/week/month
• Which MCP servers contribute the most overhead
• Which tools you actually used vs. which ones just sat in the system prompt burning tokens
• A ratio like: "You paid $12.40 this week for MCP tool definitions, but only used 3 of 40 tools"

Why this matters

For heavy MCP users, tool definition overhead could be a significant chunk of their bill with zero visibility. This would be a unique feature -- no other tool surfaces this data.

How it would work

Claude Code session data already contains the full system prompt and tool definitions per turn. CodeBurn can parse these, measure token counts per tool definition, and cross-reference against actual tool_use blocks to calculate used vs. unused overhead.

Vote

Upvote this discussion if you want this feature. We will build it if there is enough demand.

Related: #2