An r/opencodeCLI thread documented a real problem: 35 npm processes, 4 GB of RAM, 50,000 tokens of MCP schemas loaded before a single prompt. The fix was a single MCP daemon proxying all upstream servers. Six MCP proxy and gateway options ranked, plus the architecture that makes them work.
Top Pick
An MCP gateway is the single biggest token-cost lever in any multi-agent setup. The right one cuts 50K-token schema loads to under 500 tokens and consolidates 35 processes to one daemon.
Full Ranking
#1
Custom MCP gateway (FastMCP / @modelcontextprotocol)
Teams running 5+ MCP servers across multiple agents
Pros
- Full control
- Cheap
Cons
- BYO ops
#2
Toolhouse MCP
Hosted MCP routing
Pros
- Hosted
Cons
- Vendor lock-in
#3
Smithery
MCP server registry + proxy
Pros
- Discovery + routing
Cons
- Newer ecosystem
#4
Mintlify MCP
Doc-driven tool routing
Pros
- Auto-generates from docs
Cons
- Doc-dependent
#5
Native Claude/Cursor MCP config
Solo dev with under 5 servers
Pros
- Zero infra
Cons
- Per-app config drift
#6Our Pick
Scavio MCP (single tool, no proxy needed)
Replacing 5 search-related MCP servers with one
Pros
- One tool, multi-platform
Cons
- Not a general proxy
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Criteria | Scavio | Runner-up | 3rd Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Replaces multiple MCP servers | Search/extract specifically | Generic proxy | Generic proxy |
| Schema cost | ~80 tokens | Configurable | Configurable |
| Hosted | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | Search consolidation | Full proxy | Hosted routing |
Why Scavio Wins
- An MCP gateway and Scavio MCP solve adjacent problems. The gateway proxies many MCP servers into one connection. Scavio MCP replaces several search-shaped MCP servers (Tavily MCP, Brave MCP, Reddit MCP, YouTube MCP) with one, cutting both schema cost and credential count.
- If a setup has Tavily MCP + Brave MCP + Reddit MCP + YouTube scraper MCP attached, that's four schemas, four credentials, four billing relationships. Replacing them with mcp.scavio.dev/mcp drops the count to one for the search tool surface.
- The thread's real win was the daemon architecture, not the proxy itself. One process serving many agents instead of N processes per agent. That pattern is implementation-agnostic — pick any of the gateways and configure them once.
- Honest tradeoff: for non-search MCP servers (Postgres, GitHub, custom internal tools) you still need a generic proxy. Scavio MCP handles the search/extract surface only. The right setup is often: generic gateway proxying internal MCPs + Scavio MCP attached directly for search.
- Token-cost math: a search MCP that exposes 8 tools with full schemas costs 5K-10K tokens loaded per session. Scavio MCP exposes 6 tools at ~80 tokens each. On a session that fans out 30 turns, the schema-load delta alone changes a $0.50 session into a $0.10 session.