[mksglu]

Author here. I shared the GitHub repo a few days ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47148025) and got great feedback. This is the writeup explaining the architecture.

The core idea: every MCP tool call dumps raw data into your 200K context window. Context Mode spawns isolated subprocesses — only stdout enters context. No LLM calls, purely algorithmic: SQLite FTS5 with BM25 ranking and Porter stemming.

Since the last post we've seen 228 stars and some real-world usage data. The biggest surprise was how much subagent routing matters — auto-upgrading Bash subagents to general-purpose so they can use batch_execute instead of flooding context with raw output.

Source: https://github.com/mksglu/claude-context-mode Happy to answer any architecture questions.

[lkbm]

Small suggestion: Link to the Cloudflare Code mode post[0] in the blog post where you mentio it. It's linked in the README, but when I saw it in the blog post, I had to Google it.

[0] https://blog.cloudflare.com/code-mode-mcp/

[re5i5tor]

Really intrigued and def will try, thanks for this.

In connecting the dots (and help me make sure I'm connecting them correctly), context-mode _does not address MCP context usage at all_, correct? You are instead suggesting we refactor or eliminate MCP tools, or apply concepts similar to context_mode in our MCPs where possible?

Context-mode is still very high value, even if the answer is "no," just want to make sure I understand. Also interested in your thoughts about the above.

I write a number of MCPs that work across all Claude surfaces; so the usual "CLI!" isn't as viable an answer (though with code execution it sometimes can be) ...

Edit: typo

[mksglu]

Right, context-mode doesn't change how MCP tool definitions get loaded into context. That's the "input side" problem that Cloudflare's Code Mode tackles by compressing tool schemas. Context-mode handles the "output side," the data that comes back from tool calls. That said, if you're writing your own MCPs, you could apply the same pattern directly. Instead of returning raw payloads, have your MCP server return a compact summary and store the full output somewhere queryable. Context-mode just generalizes that so you don't have to rebuild it per server.

[nextaccountic]

Can this be used with other agents? I'm looking specifically into the Zed Agent

[nitinreddy88]

Any reason why it doesn't support Codex? I believe the idea and implementation seems to be pretty much agent independent

[esafak]

Does your technique break the cache? edit: Thanks.

[doctorpangloss]

The LLM that the "author" is using has no idea what it's talking about, and the reply you got is nonsense.

@dang it's really bad lately.

[mksglu]

Nope. The raw data never enters the conversation history in the first place, so there's nothing to invalidate. Tool output runs in a sandbox, a short summary comes back, and the full data sits in a local FTS5 index. The conversation cache stays intact because the context itself doesn't change after the fact.