Claude Code defers every MCP tool behind ToolSearch by default, so a fresh session sees only the tool name until the model searches for it. The explore tool now carries `_meta: { "anthropic/alwaysLoad": true }`, which exempts it on existing installs, and the Claude Code installer target writes `alwaysLoad: true` on the server entry (re-running install adds the key to an older entry). Copilot CLI tool search holds MCP tools back the same way once ~30 tools are connected, so its entry carries `deferTools: "never"`.
All codegraph_* tools are query-only — they read the pre-built index and
never mutate the workspace — but they advertised no MCP annotations, so
Cursor's Ask mode (and any client that gates on read-only tools) blocked
every call with "you are in ask mode and cannot run non read-only tools."
Add a shared READ_ONLY_ANNOTATIONS constant (readOnlyHint: true,
destructiveHint: false, idempotentHint: true, openWorldHint: false) and
reference it from each of the 8 tool definitions. The field flows through
every tools/list path: the live getTools() (including explore's
spread-rewritten description), the static proxy getStaticTools(), and the
no-default withRequiredProjectPath schema clone.
The annotations field is additive, so it ships without bumping the
negotiated 2024-11-05 protocol version: clients that gate on it read it
regardless, and older clients ignore it.
Closes#1018
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Aaron Queen
