# Output Format Token Comparator AI Agent Connect

> Analyze token efficiency, overhead, and complexity across different data serialization formats.

## Overview
- **Category:** developer-tools
- **Price:** Free
- **Endpoint:** https://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_8FMjS68xGbNjlBQ4xlDHec6cHMB0hcdifo6izRAm/ai-agent-connect
- **Tags:** tokens, serialization, json, xml, efficiency

## Description

This MCP server provides deterministic tools to evaluate how different data serialization formats impact token usage. Use `calculate_format_metrics` to compare token counts, overhead, and compression ratios between JSON, XML, YAML, Markdown, and CSV. You can also use `analyze_nesting_impact` to see how deep hierarchies increase costs, or `estimate_conversion_cost` to calculate the token delta when switching formats. It is designed to help optimize data structures for LLM context windows.

## Tools

### analyze_nesting_impact
Measures how the depth of the data structure affects the token overhead across different formats

### estimate_conversion_cost
Calculates the estimated token cost required to switch a data structure from a source format to a destination format

### calculate_format_metrics
Compares the token efficiency and characteristics of multiple output formats for a single data structure

## Prompt Examples

**Prompt:** 
```
Compare the token efficiency of this object in JSON and YAML: {"user": {"id": 1, "name": "Alice", "roles": ["admin", "editor"]}}
```

**Response:** 
```
JSON uses 24 tokens while YAML uses 16 tokens. The compression ratio is 0.66, and YAML is the most compact format.
```

**Prompt:** 
```
How much extra overhead does deep nesting add to XML compared to JSON?
```

**Response:** 
```
For a structure with 5 levels of nesting, XML incurs a significantly higher overhead due to repetitive closing tags, whereas JSON overhead grows more moderately.
```

**Prompt:** 
```
What is the token cost to convert this JSON to Markdown: {"title": "Report", "content": "Hello World"}
```

**Response:** 
```
The estimated token delta for converting this JSON to Markdown is 4 tokens.
```

## Frequently Asked Questions

**How do I compare token usage between JSON and YAML?**
You can use the `calculate_format_metrics` tool. Provide your data structure and include both "JSON" and "YAML" in the output formats list to see the exact token counts and the compression ratio.

**What is the nesting penalty?**
The nesting penalty refers to how much extra token overhead is added as data structures become more deeply nested. You can measure this specifically using the `analyze_nesting_impact` tool.

**Can I estimate the cost of converting data from XML to CSV?**
Yes, use the `estimate_conversion_cost` tool. It will calculate the estimated token delta and the difficulty of the conversion based on the parsing complexity of the formats.