Agents & tools · Glossary term
What is Stateless MCP?
The MCP 2026-07-28 request model in which every request carries the protocol version and client capabilities in `params._meta`, while results carry an explicit `resultType`; no protocol state is keyed by an initialization handshake, connection, or `Mcp-Session-Id`.
Why does Stateless MCP matter?
Any worker can validate and process a request from its contents and authorization context, which avoids hidden connection affinity and makes horizontal routing easier to reason about.
Stateless MCP in practice
Implement `server/discover`, rebuild request metadata on every call, validate transport headers against the JSON-RPC body, and pass server-minted application handles as ordinary tool arguments when continuity is required.
What is the common confusion about Stateless MCP?
Stateless MCP removes protocol sessions, not application state, transport connections, streaming responses, tasks, or explicit handles.
Learn Stateless MCP in the course
Start with
- MCP Fundamentals: Stateless Requests and JSON-RPC
Modern MCP has no handshake and no protocol session. Each request must carry enough metadata to be understood, authorized, routed, and retried on its own.
Lessons that name Stateless MCP in a title or section
- Stateless MCP Gateways and Registry Admission
A gateway should make every route explicit. The 2026-07-28 protocol gives it method, name, version, capability, identity, cache, and trace boundaries without a transport session.
- Capstone 13: Stateless MCP Server with Registry and Governance
Production MCP is not one server process. It is a chain of contracts: publishable metadata, live discovery, a stateless request envelope, authorization, policy, audit, and deployment evidence.
- MCP Authorization: CIMD, Issuer Binding, PKCE, and Step-Up
A remote MCP request is stateless, but its authorization is not anonymous. Bind every credential to the issuer that created it and every token to the resource that receives it.
- Capstone: Stateless Tool Ecosystem
A production agent system is a set of boundaries, not a pile of features. This capstone separates a readable in-process simulation from the protocol clients, authorization server, sandbox, and…
Taught in Phase 13: Tools & Protocols.
Also covered in Phase 19: Capstone Projects.
Related terms
- MCP (Model Context Protocol)An open JSON-RPC protocol for a host to connect to servers that expose tools, resources, prompts, and extensions through defined request,…
- Multi Round-Trip Request (MRTR)An MCP request pattern in which an operation returns `resultType: input_required` with one or more `inputRequests`, then the client…
- Tool ContractThe complete agreement for a tool boundary: purpose, typed inputs, outputs, validation, permissions, side effects, errors, timeouts,…
- IdempotencyThe property that repeating the same operation with the same identity does not create additional side effects beyond the first successful…
Sources
More terms in Agents & tools
- Agent
- Agent Harness
- Agent Memory
- Agent State
- Agent Skill
- Approval Gate
- Checkpoint
- Compensating Action
- Delegation
- Durable Execution
- Function Calling
- Human-in-the-Loop (HITL)
- MCP (Model Context Protocol)
- Multi Round-Trip Request (MRTR)
- Orchestration
- Planning
- ReAct
- Sandbox
- Skill Bundle
- Skill Catalog
- Skill Discovery
- Skill Invocation
- Structured Output
- Swarm
- Termination Condition
- Tool Contract
This entry comes from glossary/terms.md on GitHub. Browse all 250 glossary terms.