MCP Server — Limits, Timeouts, and Performance Notes
The Picasi MCP server is designed for fast data access (< 5 seconds). This page lists the current technical limits and timeout rules so that AI assistants can properly scale their requests.
Tool Limits
Limits per tool call, as currently accepted by the server.
search_updates
| Parameter | Limit |
|---|---|
limit | 1 – 100 (default: 20) |
days | 1 – 365 (default: 7) |
date_from / date_to | Any time period; overrides days |
If limit is set to more than 100, the server truncates the value to 100 and indicates this in the meta block (total_available shows the actual available count).
list_sources
No hard upper limits. The response contains all sources in the workspace. For very large workspaces, include_channels: false (default) is recommended to keep the payload small.
list_reports
| Parameter | Limit |
|---|---|
limit | Default 10, no known hard upper limit |
All Other Tools
There are no hard response limits for get_update_details, get_report, get_team_context, list_tags, or the write tools. Payloads are tied to the resource (a report, an update, a team).
Response Times
Data queries are optimized for sub-second response times.
| Tool | Expected Response Time |
|---|---|
search_updates | typically < 1 s |
list_sources | typically < 1 s (without channels) |
list_sources with include_channels: true | 1–3 s (workspace-dependent) |
get_update_details | typically < 1 s |
get_report | 1–3 s (report-dependent) |
get_team_context | typically < 1 s |
Write tools (create_*, update_*, delete_*, toggle_*) | typically < 2 s |
MCP Timeouts
The Picasi server does not enforce its own server timeout. The timeouts of the respective AI clients apply.
| Client | Effective Client Timeout |
|---|---|
| Claude Code (CLI) | Default 30 s per tool call |
| Claude.ai | Default 30 s per tool call |
| ChatGPT (Custom Connector) | Default 30 s per tool call |
Therefore, analysis tools with long runtimes (generate_feedback, summarize_updates — 15 to 45 seconds) are currently disabled. For longer analyses, use the Picasi app or retrieve the results of a previously generated report via get_report.
Rate Limiting
The MCP server currently uses no dedicated rate-limiting middleware. The general protection mechanisms of the Picasi platform (auth rate limits, WAF) apply.
Recommendations for client implementations:
- Cache results when identical queries are made repeatedly.
- For bulk evaluations, set
limitexplicitly instead of paginating through small pages in a loop. - For multiple parallel requests, prefer a single tool call per logical query.
As soon as the MCP server enforces rate limiting, this page will be updated with figures and HTTP header behavior (Retry-After, X-RateLimit-*).
Payload Structure
All tool responses provide three blocks:
result– Payload (updates, sources, reports, …)meta– Execution time, applied filters,total_availablefor searcheshints– Suggestions for useful follow-up calls
total_available in meta shows how many results would be available in total, even if they were not returned. This allows the client to decide whether a targeted query is worthwhile.