mcp: fix race condition in ServerSession.startKeepalive (#856)

This PR fixes a race condition where `ServerSession.keepaliveCancel` was
accessed in `Close` concurrently with its initialization in
`ServerSession.startKeepalive`. It also removes a now redundant test.

The fix moves keepalive initialization into `ServerSession.Connect`
similar to the implementation in `ClientSession.Connect`. This is safe
because the MCP spec allows keepalive pings before the initialization
messages. From the MCP
[spec](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-11-25/basic/lifecycle)
(emphasis added):
> The client SHOULD NOT send requests **other than pings** before the
server has responded to the initialize request.

The PR includes a reproducer test case, which fails with the following
error without this fix:
```
> go test -count=10 -race -run ^TestStreamableStatelessKeepaliveRace$ github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp                                                                                                                          8s
==================
WARNING: DATA RACE
Write at 0x00c00007fbf0 by goroutine 1095:
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.startKeepalive()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/shared.go:590 +0x58
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.(*ServerSession).startKeepalive()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/server.go:1526 +0x130
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.(*ServerSession).initialized()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/server.go:1059 +0xf8
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.init.serverSessionMethod[go.shape.*uint8,go.shape.interface { GetMeta() map[string]interface {}; SetMeta(map[string]interface {}); github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.isResult() }].func27()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/shared.go:332 +0x98
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.newServerMethodInfo[go.shape.*github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.InitializedParams,go.shape.interface { GetMeta() map[string]interface {}; SetMeta(map[string]interface {}); github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.isResult() },go.shape.struct { github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.Meta "json:\"_meta,omitempty\"" }].func2()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/shared.go:272 +0x84
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.defaultReceivingMethodHandler[go.shape.*uint8]()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/shared.go:152 +0xe8
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.defaultReceivingMethodHandler[*github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.ServerSession]()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/shared.go:146 +0x60
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.handleReceive[go.shape.*uint8]()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/shared.go:169 +0x228
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.(*ServerSession).handle()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/server.go:1445 +0x370
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.connect[go.shape.*uint8,go.shape.*uint8].func1.1()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/transport.go:170 +0x5c
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/internal/jsonrpc2.HandlerFunc.Handle()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/internal/jsonrpc2/jsonrpc2.go:84 +0x48
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/internal/jsonrpc2.(*Connection).handleAsync.func3()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/internal/jsonrpc2/conn.go:717 +0xd8

Previous read at 0x00c00007fbf0 by goroutine 1089:
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.(*ServerSession).Close()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/server.go:1502 +0x34
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.(*StreamableHTTPHandler).ServeHTTP.deferwrap1()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/streamable.go:519 +0x34
  runtime.deferreturn()
      /opt/homebrew/Cellar/go/1.25.4/libexec/src/runtime/panic.go:589 +0x5c
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp.TestStreamableStatelessKeepaliveRace.mustNotPanic.func2()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/mcp/streamable_test.go:2156 +0x94
  net/http.HandlerFunc.ServeHTTP()
      /opt/homebrew/Cellar/go/1.25.4/libexec/src/net/http/server.go:2322 +0x48
  net/http.serverHandler.ServeHTTP()
      /opt/homebrew/Cellar/go/1.25.4/libexec/src/net/http/server.go:3340 +0x270
  net/http.(*conn).serve()
      /opt/homebrew/Cellar/go/1.25.4/libexec/src/net/http/server.go:2109 +0x9b0
  net/http.(*Server).Serve.gowrap3()
      /opt/homebrew/Cellar/go/1.25.4/libexec/src/net/http/server.go:3493 +0x48

Goroutine 1095 (running) created at:
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/internal/jsonrpc2.(*Connection).handleAsync()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/internal/jsonrpc2/conn.go:715 +0x334
  github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/internal/jsonrpc2.(*Connection).acceptRequest.func2.gowrap1()
      /Users/benjamin/Documents/go-sdk/internal/jsonrpc2/conn.go:676 +0x34

Goroutine 1089 (running) created at:
  net/http.(*Server).Serve()
      /opt/homebrew/Cellar/go/1.25.4/libexec/src/net/http/server.go:3493 +0x5dc
  net/http/httptest.(*Server).goServe.func1()
      /opt/homebrew/Cellar/go/1.25.4/libexec/src/net/http/httptest/server.go:311 +0x98
==================
--- FAIL: TestStreamableStatelessKeepaliveRace (0.14s)
    testing.go:1617: race detected during execution of test
FAIL
FAIL	github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/mcp	1.727s
FAIL
```

---------

Co-authored-by: Maciej Kisiel <mkisiel@google.com>
This commit is contained in:
Benjamin Egelund-Müller 2026-04-03 20:17:49 +02:00 • committed by GitHub
commit 862d78a265
No known key found for this signature in database
GPG key ID: B5690EEEBB952194

View file

@ -1031,6 +1031,13 @@ func (s *Server) Connect(ctx context.Context, t Transport, opts *ServerSessionOp
s.opts.Logger.Error("server connect error", "error", err)
return nil, err
}
// Start keepalive before returning the session to avoid race conditions with Close.
// This is safe because the spec allows sending pings before initialization (see ServerSession.handle for details).
if s.opts.KeepAlive > 0 {
ss.startKeepalive(ss.server.opts.KeepAlive)
}
return ss, nil
}
@ -1058,9 +1065,6 @@ func (ss *ServerSession) initialized(ctx context.Context, params *InitializedPar
ss.server.opts.Logger.Error("duplicate initialized notification")
return nil, fmt.Errorf("duplicate %q received", notificationInitialized)
}
if ss.server.opts.KeepAlive > 0 {
ss.startKeepalive(ss.server.opts.KeepAlive)
}
if h := ss.server.opts.InitializedHandler; h != nil {
h(ctx, serverRequestFor(ss, params))
}
@ -1110,7 +1114,7 @@ type ServerSession struct {
server *Server
conn *jsonrpc2.Connection
mcpConn Connection
keepaliveCancel context.CancelFunc // TODO: theory around why keepaliveCancel need not be guarded
keepaliveCancel context.CancelFunc
mu sync.Mutex
state ServerSessionState
@ -1504,7 +1508,8 @@ func (ss *ServerSession) setLevel(_ context.Context, params *SetLoggingLevelPara
func (ss *ServerSession) Close() error {
if ss.keepaliveCancel != nil {
// Note: keepaliveCancel access is safe without a mutex because:
// 1. keepaliveCancel is only written once during startKeepalive (happens-before all Close calls)
// 1. keepaliveCancel is only written once during Server.Connect (through startKeepalive),
// which happens before any code that may call Close from another goroutine
// 2. context.CancelFunc is safe to call multiple times and from multiple goroutines
// 3. The keepalive goroutine calls Close on ping failure, but this is safe since
// Close is idempotent and conn.Close() handles concurrent calls correctly