[Client][Schema][Server] Implement protocol version negotiation (#403)

* [Client][Docs][Schema][Server] Implement protocol version negotiation

The `initialize` handler never looked at the version the client asked for:
it always answered with the server's configured version (or the SDK default),
so a client offering a revision the server supports could still be told to
speak a different one. The spec requires echoing back a supported request and
only counter-offering when the requested version cannot be honoured.

Turns ProtocolVersion into the registry the other SDKs converged on
(typescript-sdk's protocolEras.ts, python-sdk's mcp_types/version.py):
`latestHandshake()`, `handshakeVersions()`, `modernVersions()` and ordered
comparison through `isAtLeast()`. Comparison goes through declaration order
rather than string collation, so an unrecognized peer string compares
conservatively instead of accidentally sorting above a known revision. The
one throw the enum can produce is the SDK's own LogicException, so a consumer
catching `Mcp\Exception\ExceptionInterface` does not miss it.

Adds 2026-07-28 as a known revision and splits the set into two eras:
handshake (2025-11-25 and earlier, negotiated via `initialize`) and modern
(2026-07-28+, per-request `_meta`). The lists are kept apart so a modern
revision can never leak into an `initialize` exchange, which has no
`initialize` at all. Serving the modern era is follow-up work; this only
teaches the SDK that the revision exists and must not be mis-negotiated.
Deliberately absent is any "newest revision in any era" accessor, which
would hand back the one revision the handshake must never offer.

Server: negotiates and stores the result on the session. A version pinned in
Configuration still pins the handshake to exactly that revision.
Client: validates the counter-offer and fails the handshake instead of
continuing on a revision it cannot speak; records the negotiated version on
the client state, readable through the new Client::getProtocolVersion().

The HTTP middleware now defaults to the handshake versions rather than every
declared case, so it stops accepting a modern version the server cannot yet
serve. When the header is absent it falls back to
ProtocolVersion::DEFAULT_NEGOTIATED_VERSION (2025-03-26), the revision that
introduced both Streamable HTTP and the header itself.

The negotiation behaviour is one provideNegotiationTable() data provider
whose rows are the documented table -- supported revision echoed back,
unknown or malformed counter-offered, modern counter-offered -- so the docs
and the suite cannot drift apart. The supported-revision rows iterate
handshakeVersions() rather than a literal list, so declaring a new handshake
revision extends the table automatically, and the "never answer with a modern
revision" assertion runs on every row.

Documented in server-builder.md (the enum registry, how the server answers a
handshake, what pinning changes), transports.md (the header check) and
client.md (the client's side), all linking the spec's versioning section.

* [Client][Docs][Schema][Server] Warn when the configured protocol version cannot be negotiated

* Log a warning instead of silently falling back when a modern revision is
  configured on the client or pinned on the server builder.
* Document that setProtocolVersion() does not restrict the MCP-Protocol-Version
  header check, which validates against a fixed set.
* Pin every revision's era in a test, so a new case declared past the modern
  boundary fails instead of dropping out of the handshake set.
* Add CHANGELOG entry.

* [Client][Docs][Schema][Server] Rename version fallback constant and trim comments
This commit is contained in:
Christopher Hertel 2026-08-15 01:41:19 +02:00 • committed by GitHub
commit eb20453f49
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@ -231,6 +231,17 @@ use Mcp\Server\Transport\Http\Middleware\ProtocolVersionMiddleware;
new ProtocolVersionMiddleware(supportedVersions: [ProtocolVersion::V2025_11_25]);
```
The default set is `ProtocolVersion::handshakeVersions()` — every revision the server can actually negotiate over
`initialize`, rather than every revision the enum declares. A request without the header is treated as
`ProtocolVersion::DEFAULT_HEADER_VERSION` (`2025-03-26`), the revision that introduced both Streamable HTTP and the
header itself, so a header-less request cannot be newer than that.
This header check is separate from, and happens after, the handshake itself. See
[Protocol Version Negotiation](server-builder.md#protocol-version-negotiation) for how the revision is agreed in the
first place. Being separate also means it is unaffected by `setProtocolVersion()`: the middleware validates against
the set it was constructed with, not against the revision a given session negotiated, so a server that pins the
handshake has to pass that revision here as well.
### Request Body Size Limit
`StreamableHttpTransport` caps the POST body it reads to guard against memory exhaustion from an oversized or