NCP - Natural Context Provider

1 MCP to rule them all

Your MCPs, supercharged. Find any tool instantly, execute with code mode, run on schedule, discover skills, load Photons, ready for any client. Smart loading saves tokens and energy.

💍 What is NCP?

Instead of your AI juggling 50+ tools scattered across different MCPs, NCP gives it a single, unified interface with code mode execution, scheduling, skills discovery, and custom Photons.

Your AI sees just 2-3 simple tools:

• find - Search for any tool, skill, or Photon: "I need to read a file" → finds the right tool automatically

• code - Execute TypeScript directly: await github.create_issue({...}) (code mode, enabled by default)

• run - Execute tools individually (when code mode is disabled)

Behind the scenes, NCP manages all 50+ tools + skills + Photons: routing requests, discovering the right capability, executing code, scheduling tasks, managing health, and caching responses.

Why this matters:

• Your AI stops analyzing "which tool do I use?" and starts doing actual work

• Code mode lets AI write multi-step TypeScript workflows combining tools, skills, and scheduling

• Skills provide domain expertise: canvas design, PDF manipulation, document generation, more

• Photons enable custom TypeScript MCPs without npm publishing

• 97% fewer tokens burned on tool confusion (2,500 vs 103,000 for 80 tools)

• 5x faster responses (sub-second tool selection vs 5-8 seconds)

• Your AI becomes focused. Not desperate.

🚀 NEW: Project-level configuration - each project can define its own MCPs automatically

What's MCP? The Model Context Protocol by Anthropic lets AI assistants connect to external tools and data sources. Think of MCPs as "plugins" that give your AI superpowers like file access, web search, databases, and more.

📑 Quick Navigation

• The Problem - Why too many tools break your AI

• The Solution - How NCP transforms your experience

• Getting Started - Installation & quick start

• Try It Out - See the CLI in action

• Supercharged Features - How NCP empowers your MCPs

• Setup by Client - Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, etc.

• Popular MCPs - Community favorites to add

• Advanced Features - Project config, scheduling, remote MCPs

• Troubleshooting - Common issues & solutions

• How It Works - Technical deep dive

• Contributing - Help us improve NCP

😤 The MCP Paradox: From Assistant to Desperate

You gave your AI assistant 50 tools to be more capable. Instead, you got desperation:

• Paralyzed by choice ("Should I use read_file or get_file_content?")

• Exhausted before starting ("I've spent my context limit analyzing which tool to use")

• Costs explode (50+ tool schemas burn tokens before any real work happens)

• Asks instead of acts (used to be decisive, now constantly asks for clarification)

🧸 Why Too Many Tools Break the System

Think about it like this:

A child with one toy → Treasures it, masters it, creates endless games with it A child with 50 toys → Can't hold them all, gets overwhelmed, stops playing entirely

Your AI is that child. MCPs are the toys. More isn't always better.

The most creative people thrive with constraints, not infinite options. A poet given "write about anything" faces writer's block. Given "write a haiku about rain"? Instant inspiration.

Your AI is the same. Give it one perfect tool → Instant action. Give it 50 tools → Cognitive overload. NCP provides just-in-time tool discovery so your AI gets exactly what it needs, when it needs it.

📊 The Before & After Reality

Before NCP: Desperate Assistant 😵‍💫

When your AI assistant manages 50 tools directly:

What happens:

• AI burns 50%+ of context just understanding what tools exist

• Spends 5-8 seconds analyzing which tool to use

• Often picks wrong tool due to schema confusion

• Hits context limits mid-conversation

After NCP: Executive Assistant ✨

With NCP as Chief of Staff:

Real results from our testing:

Translation:

• 5x faster responses (8 seconds → 1.5 seconds)

• 12x longer conversations before hitting limits

• 90% reduction in wrong tool selection

• Zero context exhaustion in typical sessions

📋 Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (Download here)

• npm (included with Node.js) or npx for running packages

• Command line access (Terminal on Mac/Linux, Command Prompt/PowerShell on Windows)

🚀 Installation

Choose your MCP client for setup instructions:

Quick Start (npm)

For advanced users or MCP clients not listed above:

Step 1: Install NCP

Step 2: Import existing MCPs (optional)

Step 3: Configure your MCP client

Add to your client's MCP configuration:

✅ Done! Your AI now sees just 2 tools instead of 50+.

🧪 Test Drive: See the Difference Yourself

Want to experience what your AI experiences? NCP has a human-friendly CLI:

🔍 Smart Discovery

Notice: NCP understands intent, not just keywords. Just like your AI needs.

📋 Ecosystem Overview

⚡ Direct Testing

Why this matters: You can debug and test tools directly, just like your AI would use them.

✅ Verify Everything Works

✅ Success indicators:

• NCP shows version number

• ncp list shows your imported MCPs

• ncp find returns relevant tools

• Your AI client shows only NCP in its tool list

💪 From Tools to Automation: The Real Power

You've seen find (discover tools) and code (execute TypeScript). Individually, they're useful. Together with scheduling, they become an automation powerhouse.

A Real Example: The MCP Conference Scraper

We wanted to stay on top of MCP-related conferences and workshops for an upcoming release. Instead of manually checking websites daily, we asked Claude:

"Set up a daily scraper that finds MCP conferences and saves them to a CSV file"

What Claude did:

1. Used

   // Search the web for MCP conferences const results = await web.search({ query: "Model Context Protocol conference 2025" }); // Read each result and extract details for (const url of results) { const content = await web.read({ url }); // Extract title, deadline, description... // Save to ~/.ncp/mcp-conferences.csv }

2. Used

   ncp schedule create code:run "every day at 9am" \ --name "MCP Conference Scraper" \ --catchup-missed

How to set this up yourself:

First, install the web photon (provides search and read capabilities):

Then ask Claude to create the scraper - it will use the web photon automatically.

What happens now:

• Every morning at 9am, the scraper runs automatically

• Searches for new MCP events and adds them to the CSV

• If our laptop was closed at 9am, it catches up when we open it

• We wake up to fresh conference data - no manual work

The insight: find and code let AI write automation. schedule makes it run forever. That's the powerhouse.

💡 Why NCP Transforms Your AI Experience

🧠 From Desperation to Delegation

• Desperate Assistant: "I see 50 tools... which should I use... let me think..."

• Executive Assistant: "I need file access. Done." (NCP handles the details)

💰 Massive Token Savings

• Before: 100k+ tokens burned on tool confusion

• After: 2.5k tokens for focused execution

• Result: 40x token efficiency = 40x longer conversations

🎯 Eliminates Choice Paralysis

• Desperate: AI freezes, picks wrong tool, asks for clarification

• Executive: NCP's Chief of Staff finds the RIGHT tool instantly

🚀 Confident Action

• Before: 8-second delays, hesitation, "Which tool should I use?"

• After: Instant decisions, immediate execution, zero doubt

Bottom line: Your AI goes from desperate assistant to executive assistant.

⚡ Supercharged Features

Here's exactly how NCP empowers your MCPs:

The result: Your MCPs go from scattered tools to a unified, intelligent system that your AI can actually use effectively.

🛠️ For Power Users: Manual Setup

Prefer to build from scratch? Add MCPs manually:

💡 Pro tip: Browse Smithery.ai (2,200+ MCPs) or mcp.so to discover tools for your specific needs.

🎯 Popular MCPs That Work Great with NCP

🔥 Most Downloaded

🛠️ Development Essentials

🌐 Productivity & Integrations

🤖 Internal MCPs

NCP includes powerful internal MCPs that extend functionality beyond external tool orchestration:

Scheduler MCP - Automate Any Tool

Schedule any MCP tool to run automatically using cron or natural language schedules.

Features:

• ✅ Natural language schedules ("every day at 9am", "every monday")

• ✅ Standard cron expressions for advanced control

• ✅ Automatic validation before scheduling

• ✅ Execution history and monitoring

• ✅ Works even when NCP is not running (system cron integration)

→ Full Scheduler Guide

MCP Management MCP - Install MCPs from AI

Install and configure MCPs dynamically through natural language.

Features:

• ✅ Search and discover MCPs from registries

• ✅ Install MCPs without manual configuration

• ✅ Update and remove MCPs programmatically

• ✅ AI can self-extend with new capabilities

Skills Management MCP - Extend Claude with Plugins

Manage Anthropic Agent Skills - modular extensions that add specialized knowledge and tools to Claude.

Features:

• ✅ Vector-powered semantic search for skills

• ✅ One-command install from official marketplace

• ✅ Progressive disclosure (metadata → full content → resources)

• ✅ Official Anthropic marketplace integration

• ✅ Custom marketplace support

• ✅ Auto-loading of installed skills

→ Full Skills Guide

Analytics MCP - Visualize Usage & Performance

View usage statistics, token savings, and performance metrics directly in your chat.

Features:

• ✅ Usage trends and most used tools

• ✅ Token savings analysis (Code-Mode efficiency)

• ✅ Performance metrics (response times, error rates)

• ✅ ASCII-formatted charts for AI consumption

Configuration: Internal MCPs are disabled by default. Enable in your profile settings:

🔧 Advanced Features

Smart Health Monitoring

NCP automatically detects broken MCPs and routes around them:

🎯 Result: Your AI never gets stuck on broken tools.

Multi-Profile Organization

Organize MCPs by project or environment:

🚀 Project-Level Configuration

New: Configure MCPs per project with automatic detection - perfect for teams and Cloud IDEs:

How it works:

• 📁 Local → Uses project configuration

• 🏠 No local → Falls back to global ~/.ncp

• 🎯 Zero profile management needed → Everything goes to default all.json

Perfect for:

• 🤖 Claude Code projects (project-specific MCP tooling)

• 👥 Team consistency (ship .ncp folder with your repo)

• 🔧 Project-specific tooling (each project defines its own MCPs)

• 📦 Environment isolation (no global MCP conflicts)

HTTP/SSE Transport & Hibernation Support

NCP supports both stdio (local) and HTTP/SSE (remote) MCP servers:

Stdio Transport (Traditional):

HTTP/SSE Transport (Remote):

🔋 Hibernation-Enabled Servers:

NCP automatically supports hibernation-enabled MCP servers (like Cloudflare Durable Objects or Metorial):

• Zero configuration needed - Hibernation works transparently

• Automatic wake-up - Server wakes on demand when NCP makes requests

• State preservation - Server state is maintained across hibernation cycles

• Cost savings - Only pay when MCPs are actively processing requests

How it works:

1. Server hibernates when idle (consumes zero resources)

2. NCP sends a request → Server wakes instantly

3. Server processes request and responds

4. Server returns to hibernation after idle timeout

Perfect for:

• 💰 Cost optimization - Only pay for active processing time

• 🌐 Cloud-hosted MCPs - Metorial, Cloudflare Workers, serverless platforms

• ♻️ Resource efficiency - No idle server costs

• 🚀 Scale to zero - Servers automatically sleep when not needed

Note: Hibernation is a server-side feature. NCP's standard HTTP/SSE client automatically works with both traditional and hibernation-enabled servers without any special configuration.

Photon Runtime (CLI vs DXT)

The TypeScript Photon runtime is enabled by default, but the toggle lives in different places depending on how you run NCP:

• CLI / npm installs: Edit ~/.ncp/settings.json (or run ncp config) and set enablePhotonRuntime: true or false. You can also override ad‑hoc with NCP_ENABLE_PHOTON_RUNTIME=true ncp find "photon".

• DXT / client bundles (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.): These builds ignore ~/.ncp/settings.json. Configure photons by setting the env var inside the client config:

If you disable the photon runtime, internal MCPs continue to work, but .photon.ts files are ignored until you re-enable the flag.

Import from Anywhere

🛟 Troubleshooting

Import Issues

AI Not Using Tools

• Check connection: ncp list (should show your MCPs)

• Test discovery: ncp find "your query"

• Validate config: Ensure your AI client points to ncp command

Performance Issues

🌓 Why We Built This

Like Yin and Yang, everything relies on the balance of things.

Compute gives us precision and certainty. AI gives us creativity and probability.

We believe breakthrough products emerge when you combine these forces in the right ratio.

How NCP embodies this balance:

Neither pure AI (too unpredictable) nor pure compute (too rigid).

Your AI stays creative. NCP handles the precision.

📚 Deep Dive: How It Works

Want the technical details? Token analysis, architecture diagrams, and performance benchmarks:

📖 Read the Technical Guide →

Learn about:

• Vector similarity search algorithms

• N-to-1 orchestration architecture

• Real-world token usage comparisons

• Health monitoring and failover systems

🤝 Contributing

Help make NCP even better:

• 🐛 Bug reports: GitHub Issues

• 💡 Feature requests: GitHub Discussions

• 🔄 Pull requests: Contributing Guide

📄 License

Elastic License 2.0 - Full License

TLDR: Free for all use including commercial. Cannot be offered as a hosted service to third parties.