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Tool surfaces

Why the connector starts with a compact tool set, how your AI client reaches the full catalog through describe_tools and use_tool, and how to pin the full surface.

The BlackOps MCP server exposes over 150 tools. Sending every one of them on connect costs real context — the full list measures roughly 40,000 tokens against the 30,000-token budget Claude gives custom connectors. So the connector can serve a compact default surface: the tools that cover a first session end to end, plus a gateway to everything else.

Nothing is removed. Every tool your plan includes stays callable in every session.

What's on the default surface

  • Identity and context — get_me, get_account_context, get_ai_context, get_brand_voice
  • Blog posts, draft to publish — post_posts, get_posts, get_post, patch_posts_by_id, post_posts_by_id_publish, post_posts_by_id_schedule, post_posts_by_id_hero
  • Notes — post_notes, get_recent_notes, get_note
  • X — post_tweets, get_x_accounts
  • Media — upload_media, finalize_media_upload, get_media
  • The catalog gateway — describe_tools, use_tool

That set measures about 5,000 tokens — a sixth of the connector budget — instead of 40,000.

How the rest of the catalog stays reachable

Two gateway tools stand in for the deferred catalog:

  • describe_tools searches the full catalog. Call it with no arguments for an index of every tool name, with a query to search names and descriptions, or with names to get complete definitions including the input schema.
  • use_tool invokes any catalog tool by name. Arguments are validated against the same schema the tool has natively and run the identical handler with identical permissions — it's dispatch, not a bypass. Tier gating still applies: a tool your plan doesn't include isn't in your catalog either.

In practice you don't call these yourself. Ask your AI client for what you want — "post this to LinkedIn", "make a video from this post", "how did my site do this week" — and it looks up the right tool and calls it. The connector's instructions tell it to.

Pinning a surface

The surface is decided when your client connects, per session:

  • Add ?surface=full to the server URL to always get every tool in tools/list:

    https://mcp.blackopscenter.com/mcp?surface=full

  • Add ?surface=default to opt into the compact surface explicitly.

  • No parameter means the server default applies.

If your workflow leans on many deferred tools every session — heavy analytics use, video production — surface=full on a client with a large context window is a fine choice. For most sessions the default surface plus the gateway is faster and cheaper.

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