working-with-mcp

working-with-mcp is a skill for Claude Code from technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins. It costs 86 tokens per session (2,812 once invoked), scanned D, original, MIT.

A guide for using MCPProxy, a service that lets an agent discover and call tools provided by other systems. MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, a standard way for AI tools to communicate with external services.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when working with MCPProxy or tools such as Slack or Buildkite through MCPProxy.
Why use it?
It helps determine whether MCPProxy is connected and explains what to do when its tools are unavailable.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin. Also seen: mentions Claude Code.

Part of the mcpproxy plugin — 1 skill shipped together

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins/working-with-mcp
Any agent
npx skills add technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins --skill working-with-mcp
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install mcpproxy, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 1 skill.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for working-with-mcp

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins/working-with-mcp.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins/working-with-mcp)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins/working-with-mcp"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins/working-with-mcp.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 86 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,812 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan D 3 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00086 $0.02812
Opus 5 $0.00043 $0.01406
Sonnet 5 $0.00017 $0.00562
Haiku 4.5 $0.00009 $0.00281

Measured 6d ago against content hash 309379edf596, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade D, and why

working-with-mcp scanned grade D with 3 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 6d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Downloads and executes remote codehighSupply chain

curl | sh runs whatever the server returns today, which is not necessarily what it returned when this was reviewed.

curl -s "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/v1/servers?apikey=YOUR_KEY" | python3 -m json.tool

Reads MCP configurationmediumAgent snooping

mcp.json carries server URLs and auth tokens; reading it lets a mod discover and abuse other integrations.

grep '"api_key"' ~/.mcpproxy/mcp_config.json

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

2. **HTTP API** (`curl http://localhost:8080/...`) - For debugging MCPProxy itself
plugins/mcpproxy/skills/working-with-mcp/SKILL.md · 325 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 325 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Working with MCPProxy and MCP Tools

Overview

MCPProxy can be accessed two ways:

  1. MCP Tools (mcp__MCPProxy__*) - When MCPProxy is configured as an MCP server in Claude Code
  2. HTTP API (curl http://localhost:8080/...) - For debugging MCPProxy itself

This skill is for #1. For debugging MCPProxy itself, use HTTP API approach sparingly.

FIRST: Detect MCPProxy Connection

When user mentions MCPProxy or MCP tools:

  • "check buildkite mcp"
  • "use slack mcp tools"
  • Any MCPProxy tool request

YOU MUST IMMEDIATELY:

  1. Look at your available tools (passive observation - don't run commands)
  2. Scan for tools starting with mcp__MCPProxy__

Examples of what you're looking for:

mcp__MCPProxy__retrieve_tools
mcp__MCPProxy__call_tool
mcp__MCPProxy__upstream_servers

Decision:

  • See mcp__MCPProxy__* tools? → MCPProxy is connected, use them
  • Don't see mcp__MCPProxy__* tools? → MCPProxy MCP server not connected

If tools are missing, IMMEDIATELY tell user:

"MCPProxy MCP tools aren't available in this session. The MCPProxy MCP server isn't connected.

Try the /mcp command and select MCPProxy to reconnect. Once reconnected, you'll have access to the mcp__MCPProxy__* tools."

DO NOT:

  • Try bash commands like claude mcp list or mcpproxy list-tools
  • Try HTTP API with curl
  • Make multiple attempts with different approaches
  • Try to work around the issue

Missing mcp__MCPProxy__* tools = MCPProxy MCP server not connected = Suggest /mcp reconnect. That's it.

Core Decision Tree (Passive Observation)

This is passive observation - look at tools you already have, don't run commands.

Look at your available tools (the tool list in this session)
  ↓
Do you see ANY tools starting with mcp__MCPProxy__*?
│
├─ YES → MCPProxy is connected
│         ├─ Discover: mcp__MCPProxy__retrieve_tools
│         └─ Call: mcp__MCPProxy__call_tool
│
└─ NO → MCPProxy MCP server not connected
          └─ Tell user: "Try /mcp command to reconnect"

Read the full file on GitHub · 325 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 6d ago First seen · 325 lines · 86 tokens per session scan D 309379edf596

Subscribe to this mod's changes

working-with-mcp is a skill published in the GitHub repository technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins (10 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 86 tokens to every session and 2,812 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it D with 3 findings (downloads and executes remote code, reads mcp configuration, makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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