You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
3Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
2Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
MCPArea: what it touches
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.285,
ImprovementsSection of the release
What
MCP servers are outside programs that give Claude Code extra tools. Normally Claude Code can hold back some of those tools until they are needed, finding them through tool search rather than listing them all to Claude up front. The alwaysLoad option on a server tells Claude Code to always include every tool from that server instead.
The description of alwaysLoad now names one exception. If the server itself lists a tool with _metaanthropic/alwaysLoad set to false, that tool stays held back behind tool search even when you set alwaysLoad on the server.
Why
A server author can now keep particular tools out of the prompt, for example large or rarely used ones, even when a user asks for the server's tools to always load.
Something disagreesSomething we can check disagrees with this entry, or the writer said they could not settle it.
The writer flagged doubtOnly the option's description is known to say this; it is not confirmed that tool loading follows it.
Anthropic's release notes agreeChanged MCP tools so a tool that sets its own _meta['anthropic/alwaysLoad'] to false stays deferred when its --mcp-config, Agent SDK or…
