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Separating Intelligence From Execution: A Workflow Engine For The Model Context Protocol

·2026

Abstract

Large Language Model (LLM) agents increasingly interact with external systems through tool-calling protocols such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP). In prevailing architectures, the agent must reason about every tool invocation in every session, consuming tokens proportional to the number of actions performed--even when the task has been solved before. We present the MCP Workflow Engine, a novel MCP-native orchestration layer that decouples intelligence (deciding what to do) from execution (carrying it out). An agent reasons once to produce a declarative workflow blueprint--a JSON document specifying a directed sequence of MCP tool calls with parameterized templates, loops, parallel branches, and data piping. Subsequent executions are triggered by a single run_workflow tool call, consuming one invocation's worth of tokens regardless of the blueprint's internal complexity. We formalize the MCP Mediator architectural pattern--an MCP se

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