onetool

OneTool is a single MCP server that exposes 100+ built-in tools via a Python API. It lets you call tools in-code (for example brave.search(query="AI")) instead of wiring separate tool definitions for each integration. This approach reduces token usage and prevents context rot by centralizing tool calls behind a unified API. You can access a wide range of functionality—from web search and AWS interactions to file operations, diagrams, databases, image vision, and more—through a consistent interface. Whether you’re orchestrating complex workflows or building custom agents, OneTool lets you compose tool calls in your application while the MCP server handles execution, security, and results routing.

To use OneTool, install the MCP via uv (Python-based) and initialize with a configuration file. The server exposes tools through Python APIs and pack names such as brave, aws, excel, db, file, ot_image, ot_context, and many more. You can also leverage the MCP server as a proxy to wrap existing MCP servers, enabling you to consolidate tools under a single endpoint without incurring additional tool tax. Typical usage involves calling tools programmatically within your agent or application to perform tasks like web searches, data extraction, image analysis, and live diagram rendering, with outputs returned in structured forms suitable for downstream processing.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+ installed on your machine
• uv (the ultrafast async server for Python) installed

Installation steps

1. Install the OneTool MCP package with all optional tools:

uv tool install 'onetool-mcp[all]'

2. Initialize OneTool with a configuration path (this creates ~/.onetool by default):

onetool init -c ~/.onetool

3. (Optional) Add OneTool to Claude Code or your environment:

• Claude Code integration (example):

claude mcp add onetool -- onetool --config ~/.onetool/onetool.yaml

• Manual config (example for Claude Claude.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "onetool": {
      "command": "onetool",
      "args": ["--config", "/Users/yourname/.onetool/onetool.yaml"]
    }
  }
}

4. Verify installation:

onetool init validate -c ~/.onetool/onetool.yaml

More installation details and complete guides are available at the project's reference pages.

Tips and notes:

• Requires uv (the Python server) and Python 3.11+.
• The MCP server can expose 100+ tools out of the box, including web search (brave), database operations (db), image vision (ot_image), diagram drawing (whiteboard), and more. Tools can be invoked from code using the respective packs (e.g., brave.search, aws., file.).
• You can wrap existing MCP servers without paying the tool tax by using the MCP Server Proxy features.
• Secrets and credentials can be managed securely with age-encrypted secrets files and OS keychain integrations.
• If you experience token or context issues, consider enabling Smart Context (ctx) or using the built-in tool proxy features to minimize token consumption.
• Ensure the YAML/JSON config path used by Claude or your agent points to the correct ~/.onetool/onetool.yaml file generated by onetool init.