[Feature Request] Tool Name Prefixes for MCP Server Identification

[ThePlenkov]

[Feature Request] Tool Name Prefixes for MCP Server Identification

Problem Description

When using the Docker MCP Toolkit with multiple MCP servers enabled, users cannot easily identify which MCP server a tool belongs to from its name alone. This creates confusion when:

1. Tool Identification: Multiple servers may have tools with similar names (e.g., create_issue, read_file, query)
2. Debugging: Users need to determine which server is causing issues or providing certain functionality
3. Server Management: Users want to enable/disable tools by server category
4. Tool Discovery: Users browse available tools and need to understand their origins

Current Impact

• User confusion about tool origins and capabilities
• Difficulty in managing tools by server category
• Manual workarounds required to track tool-to-server mappings
• Poor user experience when working with multiple MCP servers

Proposed Solution: Tool Name Prefixes

Add configurable prefixes to tool names indicating their source MCP server:

• github:create_issue instead of just create_issue
• filesystem:read_file instead of just read_file
• database:query instead of just query
• slack:send_message instead of just send_message

Benefits

• Clear Tool Organization: Immediately identify which server provides each tool
• Better UX: Users can mentally categorize and filter tools by server
• Server Transparency: Always know which servers are active and contributing tools
• Debugging Aid: Easier to isolate issues to specific servers

Implementation Notes

• Prefixes should be configurable per MCP server in the server configuration
• Default prefixes could be derived from server names or allow custom specification
• Backward compatibility maintained - existing configurations continue to work
• Could integrate with existing docker mcp tools ls command to show prefixed names

Example Configuration

servers:
  - name: github
    prefix: "github"
    # ... other config
  - name: filesystem
    prefix: "fs"
    # ... other config

Related Issues

• MCP SEP-986: Specify Format for Tool Names - Official MCP specification proposal for standardized tool naming, including support for forward slashes (/) for namespacing
• ShotGrid MCP Server: Tool Naming Convention - Real-world implementation using prefixed tool names (e.g., prefix_action_qualifier)
• AWS Q Developer CLI #2397: Token usage breakdown by tool/MCP (related to tool identification)
• mcp-filter project: External proxy solution for tool filtering (addresses similar organization needs)

Environment

• Docker MCP Toolkit via Docker Desktop
• IDEs: Cursor, Windsurf, VSCode with MCP extensions

[slimslenderslacks]

I think we can put the default of using the server name behind a feature flag and start testing:

docker mcp feature enable tool-name-prefix

I've added a PR for this #192 to get started.

[slimslenderslacks]

We're adding support the mcp registry schema so the prefix is probably a good candidate for a vendor extension too.

[slimslenderslacks]

@ThePlenkov the final merged recommnedation does not support a : or a \. Should we just go with an underscore for now?

[ThePlenkov]

How about using dot?

GitHub.createIssue
Atlassian.createIssue?

The problem with underscore - it's hard to understand what is server what is tool.

For example

file_service_write_file