Tooner

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) proxy that wraps MCP servers and converts JSON responses to TOON format — a token-efficient alternative to JSON optimized for LLMs (~40% fewer tokens).

• What it does
• Installation
  • Homebrew
  • NPX
  • From Releases
    • MacOS
    • Linux
    • Windows
  • From Source
• Configure MCP (Cursor example)

What it does

Tooner runs any MCP server as a subprocess and transparently proxies messages between the client (e.g. Cursor) and the server. When the server returns JSON in tools/call responses, Tooner converts that JSON to TOON before forwarding it to the client, reducing token usage while preserving the same data.

Installation

Homebrew

You can install a binary release on macOS/Linux using brew:

# Install
brew install chaindead/tap/tooner

# Update
brew upgrade chaindead/tap/tooner

NPX

You can run the latest version directly using npx (supports macOS, Linux, and Windows):

npx -y @chaindead/tooner

When using NPX Configure MCP (Cursor example) becomes:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "telegram": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@chaindead/tooner", "memory-mcp-server-go"]
    }
  }
}

From Releases

MacOS

Note: The commands below install to /usr/local/bin. To install elsewhere, replace /usr/local/bin with your preferred directory in your PATH.

First, download the archive for your architecture:

# For Intel Mac (x86_64)
curl -L -o tooner.tar.gz https://github.com/chaindead/tooner/releases/latest/download/tooner_Darwin_x86_64.tar.gz

# For Apple Silicon (M1/M2)
curl -L -o tooner.tar.gz https://github.com/chaindead/tooner/releases/latest/download/tooner_Darwin_arm64.tar.gz

Then install the binary:

# Extract the binary
sudo tar xzf tooner.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin

# Make it executable
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/tooner

# Clean up
rm tooner.tar.gz

Linux

Note: The commands below install to /usr/local/bin. To install elsewhere, replace /usr/local/bin with your preferred directory in your PATH.

First, download the archive for your architecture:

# For x86_64 (64-bit)
curl -L -o tooner.tar.gz https://github.com/chaindead/tooner/releases/latest/download/tooner_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz

# For ARM64
curl -L -o tooner.tar.gz https://github.com/chaindead/tooner/releases/latest/download/tooner_Linux_arm64.tar.gz

Then install the binary:

# Extract the binary
sudo tar xzf tooner.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin

# Make it executable
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/tooner

# Clean up
rm tooner.tar.gz

Windows

Windows

1. Download the latest release for your architecture:
   • Windows x64
   • Windows ARM64
2. Extract the .zip file
3. Add the extracted directory to your PATH or move tooner.exe to a directory in your PATH

From Source

Requirements:

• Go 1.26 or later
• GOBIN in PATH

go install github.com/chaindead/tooner@latest

Configure MCP (Cursor example)

Add Tooner as a wrapper in ~/.cursor/mcp.json, passing your MCP server as the first argument:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "memory": {
      "command": "tooner",
      "args": ["memory-mcp-server-go"],
      "env": {
        "TOONER_LOG_PATH": "/tmp/mcp.log"
      }
    }
  }
}

• Replace memory-mcp-server-go with any MCP server binary in your PATH (e.g. go-mcp-postgres).
• You can pass args and envs to MCP as always
• TOONER_LOG_PATH is optional