Unconventional Thinking Server (v0.2.0)
A context-efficient MCP server for bold, unconventional, and boundary-breaking problem-solving.
This is a TypeScript-based MCP server that implements an unconventional thinking system optimized for context space savings based on Anthropic's latest MCP architecture patterns. It generates and tracks creative solutions to problems while maintaining efficiency.
Architecture: Context-Saving Design
This server demonstrates Anthropic's recommended patterns for reducing context overhead by 98.7%:
Key Context-Saving Features
-
Resources API for On-Demand Data Loading
- Thought content is stored as resources (
thought://id) - Claude loads full content only when explicitly needed
- Metadata is returned by default, saving tokens
- Thought content is stored as resources (
-
Server-Side Filtering
search_thoughtsfilters data locally instead of passing unfiltered sets to Claude- Only matching results returned, not entire dataset
- Reduces context consumption by filtering at the source
-
Metadata-First Returns
- Tools return only essential metadata + resource URIs
- Full thought content accessible via Resources API
- Claude decides whether to fetch full content based on need
-
Persistent File-Based Storage
- Data persists in
.thoughts/directory - No in-memory bloat accumulating across sessions
- Easy to inspect and debug thoughts locally
- Data persists in
Features
Tools (All Context-Efficient)
-
generate_unreasonable_thought- Generate new unconventional thoughts- Returns metadata + resource URI, not full content
- Can build upon or rebel against previous thoughts
- Full thought content available via Resources API
-
branch_thought- Create new branches of thinking- Supports directions: more extreme, opposite, tangential
- Returns only branch metadata for efficiency
-
search_thoughts- NEW: Efficient metadata search- Filters by branchId, isRebellion, challengesAssumption
- Returns only matching IDs and metadata
- Includes limit parameter to control result size
- Demonstrates server-side filtering pattern
Resources (On-Demand Content Loading)
- Each thought available as a resource:
thought://[thoughtId] - Metadata includes: isRebellion, challengesAssumption, timestamp, branch info
- Full thought content loaded only when Claude explicitly requests it
- Dramatically reduces token usage when many thoughts exist
How This Implements Context Efficiency
1. Progressive Disclosure
Claude doesn't need the full content of 100 thoughts upfront. Instead:
search_thoughtsreturns just IDs and metadata (100 bytes per thought)- Claude selectively fetches full content via Resources API for relevant thoughts
- Similar to how filesystems work: list files, then open specific files
2. Server-Side Filtering
Traditional approach (❌ inefficient):
All 1000 thoughts → Claude → Claude filters → Uses only 10
(costs tokens for all 1000)
This server (✅ efficient):
search_thoughts filter params → Server filters locally → Returns only 10 results
(Claude never sees the unused 990)
3. Metadata-First Pattern
Tool responses contain:
- Thought ID
- Resource URI to access full content
- Brief metadata (2-3 KB each)
- NOT the full 500-character thought (saves ~5KB per thought)
Example savings: With 100 thoughts:
- Old way: 500KB context usage
- New way: ~30KB + fetch only what's needed
Development
Install dependencies:
npm install
Build the server:
npm run build
For development with auto-rebuild:
npm run watch
Installation
To use with Claude Desktop, add the server config:
On MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"unconventional-thinking": {
"command": "/path/to/unconventional-thinking/build/index.js"
}
}
}
Usage Example
Claude: Generate an unreasonable thought about scaling problems
→ Tool: generate_unreasonable_thought("scaling problems")
← Returns: thoughtId, resourceUri, metadata
Claude: What are all the rebellious thoughts?
→ Tool: search_thoughts(isRebellion=true, limit=5)
← Returns: 5 matching thought IDs with URIs (minimal context)
Claude: I need to see the full content of thought_xyz
→ Resource: Read thought://thought_xyz
← Returns: Full thought content (loaded only when needed)
Debugging
Since MCP servers communicate over stdio, debugging can be challenging. We recommend using the MCP Inspector, which is available as a package script:
npm run inspector
The Inspector will provide a URL to access debugging tools in your browser.
References
This server implements patterns from: