Support ping client API per MCP specification

## Motivation and Context

The MCP specification defines the `ping` utility for verifying that the peer of
a connection is still responsive. The Ruby SDK server side already replies to
incoming `ping` requests with an empty result, but `MCP::Client` had no public API
to send a `ping` request. Users had to build the JSON-RPC payload themselves and
call the transport directly.

This adds a client-side counterpart to the existing server handler and aligns
the Ruby SDK in spirit with the Python and TypeScript SDKs, which expose
`ClientSession.send_ping` and `Client.ping` respectively. Those SDKs validate
the response envelope via type schemas (`EmptyResult` / `EmptyResultSchema`) and raise
their validation library's generic exception (Pydantic's `ValidationError` / Zod's `ZodError`).
The Ruby client applies a Hash type check on `result`
(matching Python's behavior of requiring a dict while allowing arbitrary contents)
and raises a new `MCP::Client::ValidationError` for malformed responses,
keeping `MCP::Client::ServerError` reserved for JSON-RPC error responses.

## How Has This Been Tested?

Client tests cover:

- request structure (method is `ping`, no `params`)
- empty result on success
- `ServerError` on JSON-RPC error response
- `ValidationError` on a response missing `result`
- `ValidationError` on a `result` of the wrong type (e.g., String)
- propagation of transport-level errors raised by `transport.send_request`

The existing server-side `ping` handler tests continue to pass unchanged.

## Breaking Changes

None. `MCP::Client#ping` and `MCP::Client::ValidationError` are purely additive.
The server-side `ping` handler behavior is unchanged.

README.md

@@ -1099,6 +1099,33 @@ Notifications follow the JSON-RPC 2.0 specification and use these method names:
 - `notifications/progress`
 - `notifications/message`
 
+### Ping
+
+The MCP Ruby SDK supports the
+[MCP `ping` utility](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-11-25/basic/utilities/ping),
+which allows either side of the connection to verify that the peer is still responsive.
+A `ping` request has no parameters, and the receiver MUST respond promptly with an empty result.
+
+#### Server-Side
+
+Servers respond to incoming `ping` requests automatically - no setup is required.
+Any `MCP::Server` instance replies with an empty result.
+
+#### Client-Side
+
+`MCP::Client` exposes `ping` to send a ping to the server:
+
+```ruby
+client = MCP::Client.new(transport: transport)
+client.ping # => {} on success
+```
+
+`#ping` raises `MCP::Client::ServerError` when the server returns a JSON-RPC error.
+It raises `MCP::Client::ValidationError` when the response `result` is missing or
+is not a Hash (matching the spec requirement that `result` be an object).
+Transport-level errors (for example, `MCP::Client::Stdio`'s `read_timeout:` firing)
+propagate as exceptions raised by the transport layer.
+
 ### Progress
 
 The MCP Ruby SDK supports progress tracking for long-running tool operations,
@@ -1549,6 +1576,7 @@ The `MCP::Client` class provides an interface for interacting with MCP servers.
 
 This class supports:
 
+- Liveness check via the `ping` method (`MCP::Client#ping`)
 - Tool listing via the `tools/list` method (`MCP::Client#tools`)
 - Tool invocation via the `tools/call` method (`MCP::Client#call_tools`)
 - Resource listing via the `resources/list` method (`MCP::Client#resources`)

lib/mcp/client.rb

@@ -28,6 +28,11 @@ module MCP
       end
     end
 
+    # Raised when a server response fails client-side validation, e.g., a success response
+    # whose `result` field is missing or has the wrong type. This is distinct from a
+    # server-returned JSON-RPC error, which is raised as `ServerError`.
+    class ValidationError < StandardError; end
+
     # Initializes a new MCP::Client instance.
     #
     # @param transport [Object] The transport object to use for communication with the server.
@@ -303,6 +308,24 @@ module MCP
       response.dig("result", "completion") || { "values" => [], "hasMore" => false }
     end
 
+    # Sends a `ping` request to the server to verify the connection is alive.
+    # Per the MCP spec, the server responds with an empty result.
+    #
+    # @return [Hash] An empty hash on success.
+    # @raise [ServerError] If the server returns a JSON-RPC error.
+    # @raise [ValidationError] If the response `result` is missing or not a Hash.
+    #
+    # @example
+    #   client.ping # => {}
+    #
+    # @see https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/latest/basic/utilities/ping
+    def ping
+      result = request(method: Methods::PING)["result"]
+      raise ValidationError, "Response validation failed: missing or invalid `result`" unless result.is_a?(Hash)
+
+      result
+    end
+
     private
 
     def request(method:, params: nil)

test/mcp/client_test.rb

@@ -538,6 +538,67 @@ module MCP
       refute(result["hasMore"])
     end
 
+    def test_ping_sends_request_and_returns_empty_hash
+      transport = mock
+      mock_response = { "result" => {} }
+
+      transport.expects(:send_request).with do |args|
+        req = args[:request]
+        req[:method] == "ping" &&
+          req[:jsonrpc] == "2.0" &&
+          !req.key?(:params)
+      end.returns(mock_response).once
+
+      client = Client.new(transport: transport)
+      result = client.ping
+
+      assert_equal({}, result)
+    end
+
+    def test_ping_raises_server_error_on_error_response
+      transport = mock
+      mock_response = { "error" => { "code" => -32_603, "message" => "Internal error" } }
+
+      transport.expects(:send_request).returns(mock_response).once
+
+      client = Client.new(transport: transport)
+      error = assert_raises(Client::ServerError) { client.ping }
+      assert_equal(-32_603, error.code)
+      assert_equal("Internal error", error.message)
+    end
+
+    def test_ping_raises_validation_error_when_result_is_missing
+      transport = mock
+      mock_response = {}
+
+      transport.expects(:send_request).returns(mock_response).once
+
+      client = Client.new(transport: transport)
+      error = assert_raises(Client::ValidationError) { client.ping }
+      assert_equal("Response validation failed: missing or invalid `result`", error.message)
+    end
+
+    def test_ping_raises_validation_error_when_result_is_wrong_type
+      transport = mock
+      mock_response = { "result" => "ok" }
+
+      transport.expects(:send_request).returns(mock_response).once
+
+      client = Client.new(transport: transport)
+      error = assert_raises(Client::ValidationError) { client.ping }
+      assert_equal("Response validation failed: missing or invalid `result`", error.message)
+    end
+
+    def test_ping_propagates_transport_errors
+      transport = mock
+      transport_error = StandardError.new("read timeout")
+      transport.expects(:send_request).raises(transport_error).once
+
+      client = Client.new(transport: transport)
+      error = assert_raises(StandardError) { client.ping }
+      assert_equal("read timeout", error.message)
+    end
+
     def test_tools_auto_paginates_across_multiple_pages
       transport = mock