---
title: HTTP Context
author: mikekistler
description: How to access the HttpContext in the MCP C# SDK.
uid: httpcontext
---

## HTTP Context

When using the Streamable HTTP transport, an MCP server might need to access the underlying [HttpContext] for a request.
The [HttpContext] object contains request metadata such as the HTTP headers, authorization context, and the actual path and query string for the request.

To access the [HttpContext], the MCP server should add the [IHttpContextAccessor] service to the application service collection (typically in Program.cs).
Then any classes, for example, a class containing MCP tools, should accept an [IHttpContextAccessor] in their constructor and store this for use by its methods.
Methods then use the [HttpContext property][IHttpContextAccessor.HttpContext] of the accessor to get the current context.

[HttpContext]: https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/api/microsoft.aspnetcore.http.httpcontext
[IHttpContextAccessor]: https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/api/microsoft.aspnetcore.http.ihttpcontextaccessor
[IHttpContextAccessor.HttpContext]: https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/api/microsoft.aspnetcore.http.ihttpcontextaccessor.httpcontext

The following code snippet illustrates how to add the [IHttpContextAccessor] service to the application service collection:

[!code-csharp[](samples/Program.cs?name=snippet_AddHttpContextAccessor)]

Any class that needs access to the [HttpContext] can accept an [IHttpContextAccessor] in its constructor and store it for later use.
Methods of the class can then access the current [HttpContext] using the stored accessor.

The following code snippet shows the `ContextTools` class accepting an [IHttpContextAccessor] in its primary constructor
and the `GetHttpHeaders` method accessing the current [HttpContext] to retrieve the HTTP headers from the current request.

[!code-csharp[](samples/Tools/ContextTools.cs?name=snippet_AccessHttpContext)]