Last month I shipped MCP Spine v0.1 — a basic proxy that sat between Claude Desktop and MCP servers. It did schema minification and security basics. Since then, it's grown into a full middleware stack. Here's everything in v0.2.5 and why each piece exists. The Starting Point 57 tools. 5 servers. Claude Desktop config file with one entry pointing to Spine. Everything routes through the proxy. pip install mcp-spine mcp-spine init Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode The setup wizard detects your installed servers (npx, node, Python), asks what features you want, and writes a tailored config. Schema Minification: 61% Fewer Tokens Every tool call starts with the LLM reading tool schemas. With 57 tools, that's thousands of tokens before the conversation even begins. Spine's minifier strips $schema , additionalProperties , parameter descriptions, titles, and defaults — keeping only what the LLM actually needs. Level 2 cuts 61% of schema tokens with zero information loss.…