mcp: write SSE comment on standalone stream so HTTP/2 reverse proxies flush HEADERS frame (#938)

Fixes #937.

### What this changes

Adds a single line — an SSE comment (`: ok\n\n`) — after `WriteHeader`
and before `Flush` on the standalone SSE GET stream. SSE comments are
explicitly ignored by clients (any line starting with `:` per the SSE
spec), but they produce an HTTP/2 DATA frame, which is what HTTP/2
reverse proxies need before they will forward the HEADERS frame.

### Why the existing fix isn't sufficient

Issue #410 was closed by #413, which added `WriteHeader(StatusOK)` +
`Flush()` to the same site. #870 refactored the `Flush()` to use
`http.NewResponseController`. Both correctly address HTTP/1.1: `Flush()`
writes the headers as text on the TCP stream and any HTTP/1.1-aware
proxy forwards them.

In HTTP/2, headers and body are separate frame types (HEADERS, DATA).
Reverse proxies batch them for efficiency and won't forward the HEADERS
frame on its own. `Flush()` on the response writer only pushes the
in-process buffer to the HTTP/2 stack; the proxy still holds the HEADERS
frame waiting for DATA. The standalone SSE stream never sends body data
on connect (the whole point — it's the long-poll listener for
server-pushed notifications), so without a deliberate "kick" the headers
never reach the client until the proxy tears down the stream on timeout.

The SSE-comment trick is the established mitigation for SSE servers
behind HTTP/2 proxies. It's used in Caddy
(https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/issues/4247), referenced in the Go
issue tracker (https://github.com/golang/go/issues/31125), and is
independent of the proxy implementation.

### The diff

```go
 if s.id == "" {
     // Issue #410: the standalone SSE stream is likely not to receive messages
     // for a long time. Ensure that headers are flushed.
+    //
+    // On HTTP/2, headers and body travel as separate frames (HEADERS and
+    // DATA). Reverse proxies (e.g. Envoy, Caddy, net/http/httputil)
+    // commonly buffer the HEADERS frame until they have a DATA frame to
+    // coalesce it with — there is no HTTP/2 equivalent of HTTP/1.1's
+    // Transfer-Encoding: chunked signal that says "this is streaming, send
+    // headers now". Calling Flush() alone is not sufficient: it pushes
+    // the kernel buffer to the proxy, but the proxy still holds the
+    // HEADERS frame.
+    //
+    // Write an SSE comment (lines starting with ":" are ignored by
+    // clients per RFC) so a DATA frame is produced, which forces the
+    // proxy to forward both frames. See:
+    //   https://github.com/golang/go/issues/31125
+    //   https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/issues/4247
     w.WriteHeader(http.StatusOK)
+    fmt.Fprint(w, ": ok\n\n")
     rc := http.NewResponseController(w)
     // Ignore returned error as flushing is best-effort.
     _ = rc.Flush()
 }
```

`fmt` is already imported in this file; no other dependencies change.

### Test

Added `TestStandaloneSSEEmitsCommentForHTTP2Flush`. It initializes a
streamable session via raw POST, then opens the standalone SSE GET and
asserts the first body byte starts with `:` (the SSE comment marker,
which is what produces the DATA frame HTTP/2 proxies need).

The test catches the bug behaviorally without requiring a full HTTP/2
reverse-proxy setup: it verifies the SDK's contract (emit body bytes
after headers on the standalone SSE stream). HTTP/2-specific behavior is
then a property of any conforming proxy.

I confirmed the test fails on `main` without the patch — it times out at
2s waiting for the first body byte — and passes in <1ms with the patch.
Full streamable test suite still passes.

### Reproduction matrix (from #937)

| Configuration | TTFB | Result |
|---|---|---|
| HTTP/2 + 30s request timeout | ~31s | Headers only on stream tear-down
|
| HTTP/2 + no request timeout | never | Headers never arrive |
| HTTP/1.1 + 30s request timeout | ~300ms | Headers immediate |
| HTTP/1.1 + no request timeout | ~270ms | Headers immediate |
| HTTP/2 POST (response has body) | ~350ms | Works (DATA frame
coalesces) |
| **HTTP/2 + this PR** | ~1ms | Headers immediate |

### Risk

- Behavior-preserving for HTTP/1.1 clients (a leading `:` line is a
valid SSE comment and is ignored by every conforming SSE client).
- No protocol-level concern: SSE explicitly defines comment lines as a
no-op for the consumer.
- The DATA frame adds 7 bytes per standalone SSE connection, sent once
on connect.

Co-authored-by: Maciej Kisiel <mkisiel@google.com>
This commit is contained in:
Justin Chang 2026-05-07 05:28:38 -07:00 • committed by GitHub
commit d10c315008
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@ -1061,7 +1061,23 @@ func (c *streamableServerConn) acquireStream(ctx context.Context, w http.Respons
if s.id == "" {
// Issue #410: the standalone SSE stream is likely not to receive messages
// for a long time. Ensure that headers are flushed.
//
// On HTTP/2, headers and body travel as separate frames (HEADERS and
// DATA). Reverse proxies (e.g. Envoy, Caddy, net/http/httputil)
// commonly buffer the HEADERS frame until they have a DATA frame to
// coalesce it with — there is no HTTP/2 equivalent of HTTP/1.1's
// Transfer-Encoding: chunked signal that says "this is streaming, send
// headers now". Calling Flush() alone is not sufficient: it pushes
// the kernel buffer to the proxy, but the proxy still holds the
// HEADERS frame.
//
// Write an SSE comment (lines starting with ":" are ignored by
// clients per RFC) so a DATA frame is produced, which forces the
// proxy to forward both frames. See:
// https://github.com/golang/go/issues/31125
// https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/issues/4247
w.WriteHeader(http.StatusOK)
fmt.Fprint(w, ": ok\n\n")
rc := http.NewResponseController(w)
// Ignore returned error as flushing is best-effort.
_ = rc.Flush()