The overhead audit

Build-along · ~10 min at your own keyboard

One course author reported a single MCP install using about 8% of his window before he typed anything. Overhead compounds: every tool, rule file, and memory entry rides along in every session. Audit quarterly, evict freeloaders.

The long version: Auditing context overhead ↗

Do this

0/4

Checkpoints

▸You should now see every overhead line item listed with its tokens.
▸You should now see a keep or evict verdict next to each.
▸You should now see a lower total in /context after the eviction.

The three ways this goes wrong

You uninstall a server but /context does not change. — Restart the session. Tools load at start.
You remove something you needed. — Keep a note of what you removed and how to reinstall it. Nothing here is permanent.
You cannot tell which line is which. — Ask Claude to explain each /context line in one sentence.

Share what happened

Paste your overhead list with verdicts and the before/after total.

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