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- Consolidate repeated rules into Conventions, General requirements, and Extension rules - Registering a method fixes its name and types; behaviour changes go through middleware or existing replacement APIs - Replace rollback atomicity with a no-partial-install rule - Require middleware ordering control, leave the mechanism to SDKs - Leave dependency check timing to SDKs, SHOULD check at startup - Make packaging guidance a SHOULD; trim terminology and appendix notes Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015SKdZofPNU5AUcBGeV31is
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015SKdZofPNU5AUcBGeV31is
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_015SKdZofPNU5AUcBGeV31is
- Scope method-name and type rules to the extension registration path - State requirements as outcomes; leave mechanisms to each SDK - Drop the dependency matching rules; SDKs choose how dependencies are expressed - Clarify sending-direction middleware, stream handling, and cleanup - Allow any ordering mechanism; add optional named insertion points - Add -32603 guidance for dependency checks during request handling - Tie the Tier 1 requirement to the next spec release after Final - Move Ruby to Tier 1 in Appendix A - Add non-normative Appendix C with example stacking designs Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Hwbri51KtC2ugmjkNwKD7D
…verability, and SDK coverage - Split middleware into JSON-RPC middleware (the default) and HTTP transport middleware for behaviour JSON-RPC cannot express, with context passed between layers. Typed per-method middleware is optional. - Add transport hooks: HTTP routes and stdio launch configuration, so authorization extensions and Server Card can ship as packages, with a coverage table mapping their needs to requirements. - Require SDKs to document supported extension points and expose them as a local set of identifiers versioned by defining SEP, with alternatives considered. - Add the authorization extensions and Server Card to Appendix B, and Appendix D rating each requirement against TypeScript, Python, C#, Go, Rust, and Java, with gaps by SDK. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Updated after the Core Maintainers meeting, which asked for three things. Transport-level middleware for auth and Server Card extensions. C# already layers it this way: ASP.NET Core middleware for HTTP and auth ( These were added after checking that SDKs already offer the underlying seams:
Every server can sit behind host-framework middleware, and none blocks a Discoverable, versioned extension points. SDKs document the extension points they support and expose them as a local set, e.g. Works across type systems. Appendix D rates every requirement for these six SDKs. None of the gaps comes from the language itself; each is a missing API, such as Rust's single Still no wire changes. @felixweinberger, could you take another look? SDK maintainers: corrections to Appendix D for your SDK are welcome. |
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| Server Card serves a document beneath the MCP endpoint, and authorization extensions serve protected resource metadata at well-known paths, both outside the MCP endpoint's JSON-RPC processing. | ||
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| - SDKs **MUST** let applications and extensions serve additional HTTP routes, for any HTTP method including `OPTIONS`, with full control of status, headers, and body. Most SDKs mount the MCP endpoint in a host framework, and documented [host composition](#host-frameworks) that lets an extension package add its routes satisfies this. |
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Is this for the top level route only? or for any route?
| Server Card serves a document beneath the MCP endpoint, and authorization extensions serve protected resource metadata at well-known paths, both outside the MCP endpoint's JSON-RPC processing. | ||
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| - SDKs **MUST** let applications and extensions serve additional HTTP routes, for any HTTP method including `OPTIONS`, with full control of status, headers, and body. Most SDKs mount the MCP endpoint in a host framework, and documented [host composition](#host-frameworks) that lets an extension package add its routes satisfies this. | ||
| - Routes **MUST** be possible both beneath the MCP endpoint path, such as `<mcp-endpoint>/server-card`, and at origin-level paths such as `/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource` and `/.well-known/ai-catalog.json`. |
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Does this apply just to .well-known or outside of it?
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I still believe we need some form of versioning that is independent from the protocol version. We are describing an API interface of a certain shape and guarantees. If that changes, we have no way to communicate to people which API interface version we support. I understand in general updating it will be tied to MCP release cadence because of conformance testing, however:
- In beta versions this is not clear.
- The MCP Spec version is tied to the MCP protocol and generally implies negotiation, which is not true for the API interface. I think reusing the version is confusing.
I would rather prefer if we have Extension API Interface version 1 that people can introspect at runtime via Extensions.InterfaceVersion. In the release notes of the SDK we can always refer to which Extension API Interface it implements. For example, if V1 and V2 is backwards compatible, an SDK might chose to ship v2 anytime before the next spec release. There is no way to communicate that an SDK supports a next generation interface in the current SEP.
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| Transport middleware runs outside JSON-RPC middleware. An inbound HTTP request passes through transport middleware before its messages are parsed and reach JSON-RPC middleware; outbound messages pass through JSON-RPC middleware before they are serialized and handed to transport middleware. Transport middleware passes information inward as local [context](#context-between-layers). An extension can contribute middleware in either or both categories. | ||
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| JSON-RPC middleware is the default. Transport middleware is a lower-level tool for behaviour that JSON-RPC middleware cannot express: |
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I don't think this sentence makes much sense. There is no default for middleware.
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I think that today, middleware can exist at 2 different layers: The data model / json-rpc layer, or at the http/transport layer.
The problem with the http/transport layer is that it's specific to http, so it doesn't apply to stdio (which makes the application of the extension uneven). So it's preferable to put behavior at the data model layer, because it applies to both transports.
I also think more broadly -- it's a good idea to limit extension owners somewhat as it constrains their implementation to acceptable limits. While server card is an exception, I don't really want most SDKs to start using other HTTP verbs or endpoints because I think that somewhat violates the current design principles of MCP.
I am worried that this new layer of transport middleware makes the SDKs almost in the http framework business.
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By default I meant prefer json rpc when both suffice, since it works across transports. Clarified that. The HTTP-specific bits can use the host framework, so this doesn't require the SDK to provide an HTTP framework.
| - Behaviour that depends on HTTP status codes or headers rather than messages. | ||
| - Behaviour that must run before a message is parsed or accepted, such as rejecting an unauthenticated HTTP request. | ||
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| Extensions **SHOULD** use JSON-RPC middleware wherever it suffices, so that they work the same way over every transport, and **SHOULD** limit transport middleware to the parts that need it. For example, an authorization extension uses transport middleware to verify credentials and answer with `401`, while a policy that inspects tool calls uses JSON-RPC middleware and reads the resulting identity from [context](#context-between-layers). Contributions that do not wrap processing, such as HTTP routes, are [transport hooks](#4-transport-hooks) rather than middleware. |
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I don't think we advice extensions what to do, whatever works for them honestly.
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I'd keep this as guidance. It's a SHOULD, so extensions can choose otherwise when their use case warrants it.
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| ```typescript | ||
| // Pseudocode: Handler is an invented message-stream interface. | ||
| function searchMiddleware(next: Handler): Handler { |
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What's a handler here? The distinction between JSON-RPC middleware and a transport middleware is exactly in the type information about the middleware. I would have expected that a JSON-RPC Middleware will return some Request or Response JSON-RPC handler, where as a transport or middleware just has a general type T that represents a transport and has some associated interface that is dependent on the SDK that middleware can manipulate.
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The Handler in the example is illustrative; its shape depends on the language and SDK. By typed middleware I meant method-specific middleware, like tool calls, alongside arbitrary json rpc middleware. Both can be useful, and method-specific middleware stays a MAY.
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| Server Card serves a document beneath the MCP endpoint, and authorization extensions serve protected resource metadata at well-known paths, both outside the MCP endpoint's JSON-RPC processing. | ||
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| - SDKs **MUST** let applications and extensions serve additional HTTP routes, for any HTTP method including `OPTIONS`, with full control of status, headers, and body. Most SDKs mount the MCP endpoint in a host framework, and documented [host composition](#host-frameworks) that lets an extension package add its routes satisfies this. |
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Can't this be done via a transport middleware? I am not sure we need to be explicit about this
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Yes, but generic middleware support doesn't necessarily give an extension access to the host router's matching and conflict handling. I'd keep the explicit requirement that extension packages can contribute routes through normal host composition, without requiring an MCP-specific route API.
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This can go through middleware where the framework supports it, but middleware might not expose route registration or the router's matching and conflict handling. Kept the capability explicit while allowing middleware or host routing to provide it. File upload extension proposals might need this too.
| ### 4. Transport hooks | ||
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| Transport hooks let extensions add to a transport without wrapping message processing. They are not middleware: an HTTP route handles its own requests rather than calling the next layer, and a launch setting configures a process rather than intercepting messages. As with transport middleware, extensions use them only for behaviour that cannot be expressed on JSON-RPC messages. |
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I am not sure I understand the need for transport hooks. I feel a transport hook is strictly a subset of a middleware.
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HTTP routing can be implemented through middleware, so “they are not middleware” is too categorical. Launch arguments and environment variables are configuration before a process starts. I'd describe routing and launch configuration as separate capabilities, without saying that routing cannot be implemented through middleware.
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Agreed, routes can be implemented through middleware. Changed the wording to describe route contribution and launch configuration as separate capabilities.
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@dsp-ant, I'm not sure I see the value of cross-SDK interface versioning. Given that extensions already need compatible SDK package versions to access the concrete APIs, what code would use Extensions.InterfaceVersion to make a decision that package compatibility or individual feature detection cannot make?
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| Some methods produce more than one message. Middleware **MUST** be able to act on each message as it is produced or consumed, not only on a final result. Adding middleware **MUST NOT** change delivery order, cancellation, or error propagation, or force buffering of the whole stream. This covers protocol messages, not transport frames. | ||
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| In the sending direction, middleware acts on an outgoing message before it is sent and on any messages returned by that operation. For a client request, this covers the outgoing request and the peer's response messages, including supported intermediate results. An outgoing notification has no response of its own. A notification emitted on a `subscriptions/listen` stream can be handled as a yielded message in the receiving chain for that request. A separate sending chain is not required when the receiving chain already covers those outbound messages. SDKs choose the API shape; the generator above illustrates receiving middleware, not a required signature for every direction. |
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On stdio, a client cannot reliably associate deprecated logging notifications with a particular operation. Should these messages still be interceptable without request correlation, or can they be excluded from the required client-side middleware coverage?
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| #### Host frameworks | ||
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| An SDK **MAY** meet the transport middleware and [transport hook](#4-transport-hooks) requirements through the host's HTTP stack, such as ASP.NET Core middleware and endpoints, Express or Hono, ASGI, `net/http` handlers and round trippers, Tower layers and routers, or servlet filters, if it exposes its HTTP handler and HTTP client as composable units and documents how to pass context into message processing. A dedicated MCP API is not required where the host's mechanism suffices, but an extension package **MUST** be able to contribute its transport middleware and hooks through the same registration as its other contributions or through documented host composition. |
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The host-framework section permits contributions through documented host composition. Does an extension still need to declare every contribution in one SDK registration, or can its package configure SDK services/filters and host middleware/routes separately? I'd like normal host configuration and options validation to satisfy this, with setup failures preventing activation, rather than require a combined plugin registration framework.
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Separate host composition makes sense; clarified that a package can configure those contributions separately. I'd still keep dependency declaration and verification as capabilities the SDK provides.
| ### 4. Transport hooks | ||
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| Transport hooks let extensions add to a transport without wrapping message processing. They are not middleware: an HTTP route handles its own requests rather than calling the next layer, and a launch setting configures a process rather than intercepting messages. As with transport middleware, extensions use them only for behaviour that cannot be expressed on JSON-RPC messages. |
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HTTP routing can be implemented through middleware, so “they are not middleware” is too categorical. Launch arguments and environment variables are configuration before a process starts. I'd describe routing and launch configuration as separate capabilities, without saying that routing cannot be implemented through middleware.
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| Server Card serves a document beneath the MCP endpoint, and authorization extensions serve protected resource metadata at well-known paths, both outside the MCP endpoint's JSON-RPC processing. | ||
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| - SDKs **MUST** let applications and extensions serve additional HTTP routes, for any HTTP method including `OPTIONS`, with full control of status, headers, and body. Most SDKs mount the MCP endpoint in a host framework, and documented [host composition](#host-frameworks) that lets an extension package add its routes satisfies this. |
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Yes, but generic middleware support doesn't necessarily give an extension access to the host router's matching and conflict handling. I'd keep the explicit requirement that extension packages can contribute routes through normal host composition, without requiring an MCP-specific route API.
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| - A dependency **MUST NOT** be considered unmet solely because it was registered or enabled after the extension that requires it. | ||
| - An extension's handlers and middleware **MUST NOT** run unless its dependencies are satisfied by the local configuration applicable to that execution. | ||
| - SDKs choose when to check dependencies and **SHOULD** check before serving where possible. A configuration-time check is sufficient when the relevant configuration cannot change. Where it can change or vary by request, the SDK **MUST** ensure the dependencies remain satisfied before running the extension. |
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Can we add a concrete example where dependency validation must happen during execution rather than during configuration? The examples here seem satisfiable with startup validation. In C#, we'd prefer required DI services and options validation where those suffice, rather than introduce a parallel dependency system.
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One example is a mode selected from the peer's capabilities that needs another local extension. That dependency would be checked once the mode is selected, before it runs. These cases are fairly niche though; fixed dependencies can still be checked at startup.
| Extension packages and applications need to know which extension points an SDK supports before relying on them, both in documentation and in code. | ||
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| - SDKs **MUST** document each extension point that they support, with the APIs that provide it and their ordering rules, in one place reachable from the SDK's main documentation. | ||
| - SDKs **MUST** expose, through a public API, the set of extension points in this SEP that they support, for each role, client and server, they implement. An identifier is included only if the SDK meets every requirement for that extension point in that role. |
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What is the concrete use case for requiring runtime support introspection? An extension still needs an SDK-specific implementation and compatible SDK package versions to use these APIs. Could we use the standardized identifiers for documentation and conformance reporting while making the public introspection API optional?
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Made this optional. It was added in response to core maintainer feedback, but I'm fairly flexible here. @dsp-ant, did I capture your suggestion correctly? It would help to understand the use case for making it required.
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Read the rendered SEP
Summary
Bundling extension implementations into SDKs ties their maintenance and releases together. This SEP defines three public extension points so extension owners can publish independent packages and applications can compose them on one SDK:
Each SDK chooses APIs that fit its language. Static middleware composition can satisfy ordering; runtime inspection is optional. Extensions may expose named insertion points without exposing every internal middleware step. Packaging and API stability follow each SDK's existing public API and versioning policies.
Requirements target protocol version
2026-07-28and later. Tier 1 enforcement and conformance scenarios take effect with the first specification release after the SEP reaches Final; no separate deadline is introduced.The SEP adds no wire fields or methods. It states the extension rules under which these hooks are sufficient and leaves extensions needing more responsible for their SDK compatibility. Conformance follows SEP-2484; a complete reference implementation is still needed. Appendices assess existing SDK APIs and extension needs and illustrate optional middleware composition designs.
Validation
npm run prepdid not complete: this environment blocks the tsx CLI's IPC socket, and automatic approval review rejected a GitHub download used by the link-check dependency. Local checks usednode --import tsxthrough a temporary dependency launcher; no tooling changes are included.AI assistance
Codex assisted with drafting and editing the SEP, reviewing linked sources and comments, validating the changes, and drafting review replies, following my design decisions.