Saying 'Hi' to an Internal AI Agent Consumed 177,000 Tokens Due to Tool Definitions
Bold.org's internal company agent, built on OpenCode, saw token usage climb faster than its session count could explain. A fresh conversation containing only the word "hi" was recorded at 177,444 input tokens, which ruled out long conversations as the main cause. Analysis with a token-tracking tool pointed to the skill catalog and tool definitions, which the tool's inventory did not fully capture. Investigators traced the bulk of the overhead to full MCP tool definitions, particularly a Meta Ads integration with 97 tools whose descriptions and schemas were sent with every request. The case shows how integration documentation loaded into an agent's context can dominate costs even when unused.







