## Motivation and Context
The transports parse incoming JSON with `symbolize_names: true`, so a tool receives every key,
at every nesting level, as a Ruby symbol. The dispatch in `call_tool_with_args` only runs
a shallow `transform_keys(&:to_sym)`, which is effectively a no-op given the deep parse upstream.
Nothing in the SDK exercised that delivered shape: the README and examples take flat or primitive arguments,
and the tool tests invoke `call` with Ruby keyword arguments, so none go through the JSON parse to dispatch path.
A tool that reads a nested object with string keys (`payload["subject"]`) therefore passes its tests and then
returns nil against a real client.
Ruby keyword arguments bind only on symbol keys, so the top-level keys must be symbols for
the ergonomic `def call(message:, ...)` API to work. Aligning fully with the JSON wire shape that the spec and
the Python and TypeScript SDKs use (string keys) is not possible without a breaking change to that API.
This change therefore documents the existing contract rather than altering behavior.
Closes#412
## How Has This Been Tested?
New regression tests in `test/mcp/server_test.rb`:
- `tools/call` through the full `handle_json` path delivers nested object arguments with symbol keys at every level,
and string-key access on a nested value returns nil.
- A tool called under the JSON-round-tripped argument shape receives symbol keys, mirroring what a transport hands it at runtime.
## Breaking Changes
None. This is a documentation and test change with no behavior change.
The `lib/mcp/server.rb` edit is a clarifying comment on the existing key handling.
## Additional context
Making nested objects tolerant of both string and symbol keys (indifferent access) is a possible future improvement
that would remove the footgun and move closer to the other SDKs. It is intentionally left out of scope here and
can be designed separately, since it is a behavior and dependency decision rather than a documentation fix.
## Motivation and Context
This commit implements Phase 1 of 3 for #334.
The MCP specification requires an `initialize` request followed by
a `notifications/initialized` notification before any other interaction.
PR #327 added `MCP::Client#connect` and `MCP::Client::HTTP#connect`
to expose this handshake explicitly for the HTTP transport,
but stdio remained on its private `initialize_session` lazy-init path,
inconsistent with the Python SDK (`ClientSession.initialize()`) and
TypeScript SDK (`Client.connect(transport)`),
both of which require an explicit handshake call regardless of transport.
The implicit init path on the first `send_request` is
preserved as a non-breaking compatibility shim. Public API added on `Stdio`:
- `connect(client_info:, protocol_version:, capabilities:)` performs the
handshake, validates the negotiated `protocolVersion` against
`MCP::Configuration::SUPPORTED_STABLE_PROTOCOL_VERSIONS`,
caches the `InitializeResult`, and is idempotent.
- `connected?` reports handshake completion.
- `server_info` exposes the cached `InitializeResult`.
Documentation and examples are updated so new users learn the explicit pattern
from the start.
## How Has This Been Tested?
Fifteen regression tests cover: explicit handshake, `server_info` caching,
idempotence, custom keyword arguments, JSON-RPC error response, missing
or non-Hash `result`, unsupported protocol version with state rollback,
state rollback when the `notifications/initialized` write fails,
retry after a failed handshake, and the `connected?` / `server_info` lifecycle.
The pre-existing stdio tests pass without modification, verifying that
the implicit-init compatibility path still works.
## Breaking Changes
None for the typical "implicit init via `client.tools` / `client.call_tool`" usage.
Existing stdio clients keep working unchanged.
Three observable behavior changes for code that inspects transport state directly:
- `Client#connected?` for a never-initialized stdio client returns `false`
(previously fell through to a `true` default via the `respond_to?` fallback).
- `Client#server_info` for stdio returns the cached `InitializeResult`
after the handshake (previously always `nil` via the fallback).
- The implicit handshake path now validates the server's negotiated
protocol version, raising `RequestHandlerError` for unsupported versions.
Production servers that return one of the supported versions are unaffected;
this closes a pre-existing spec-conformance gap on stdio.
Per MCP spec, clients that no longer need a session SHOULD send an HTTP
DELETE to the MCP endpoint with the Mcp-Session-Id header to explicitly
terminate it. Servers MAY respond with 405 Method Not Allowed when they
don't support client-initiated termination.
`MCP::Client::HTTP#close` sends the DELETE with session headers, clears
local session state regardless of outcome, and is a no-op when no
session has been established.
https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-11-25/basic/transports#session-management
Per the Streamable HTTP spec, if the server returns an Mcp-Session-Id
header during `initialize`, the client MUST include it on subsequent
requests. Capture the session ID and protocol version from the
`initialize` response and attach them automatically on subsequent
POSTs.
Per the Protocol Version Header section of the spec, the client MUST
also include `MCP-Protocol-Version` on all subsequent requests so the
server can respond based on the negotiated protocol version.
Map 404 responses to a new `SessionExpiredError` (a subclass of
`RequestHandlerError` for backward compatibility) and clear local
session state so callers can start a fresh session with a new
`initialize` request, as required by the spec.
- https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-11-25/basic/transports#session-management
- https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-11-25/basic/transports#protocol-version-header
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The Streamable HTTP spec allows servers to respond with either
`application/json` or `text/event-stream`. The client previously
rejected the latter. Add SSE parsing via the optional
`event_stream_parser` gem (users add it to their Gemfile when their
server uses SSE), dispatch on the response Content-Type, and scan the
event stream for the first JSON-RPC response message.
Document the new optional dependency in both the README's HTTP
Transport Layer section and docs/building-clients.md.
No other Streamable HTTP features (202 handling, session IDs,
`connect`, DELETE termination) are included here; those will land in
follow-up PRs.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Follow-up to https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/ruby-sdk/pull/181.
The landing page at https://ruby.sdk.modelcontextprotocol.io previously only listed version links
to RubyDoc.info. Add multi-page documentation using the just-the-docs Jekyll theme with
sidebar navigation, search, and code highlighting.
Pages: Introduction, Installation, Building Servers, and Building Clients.
This PR introduces a basic set of pages. Additional content can be added incrementally in future updates.
This adds automated deployment of a versioned API documentation landing
page using GitHub Pages. The landing page links to documentation hosted
on RubyDoc.info, the de facto standard documentation site for the Ruby
ecosystem. The landing page will update to reflect new releases.
Changes
-------
1. **Documentation generation script** (see `bin/generate-gh-pages.sh`)
Copies and commits documentation files to the gh-pages branch. The
script uses git worktrees to isolate the process from the main
workspace.
The script:
- Creates the gh-pages branch as an orphan branch if it doesn't exist
- Parses semantic versions from tag names, ignoring arbitrary
prefixes (e.g., tags `1.2.3`, `v1.2.3`, and `release-1.2.3` all
create `v1.2.3`)
- Determines the latest version using semantic version sorting
- Copies static Jekyll template files from `docs/` to the gh-pages
root (for the latest version only)
- Generates `docs/_data/versions.yml` with a list of all versions
for the Jekyll templates to consume
2. **Jekyll template files** (see `docs/` directory)
- `docs/_config.yml` - Jekyll configuration
- `docs/index.md` - Landing page template that links to all versions
on RubyDoc.info based on generated `docs/_data/versions.yml`
- `docs/latest/index.html` - Redirect page template that redirects
to the latest documentation on RubyDoc.info
3. **GitHub Actions workflow** (see `.github/workflows/release.yml`)
Added a `publish_gh_pages` job that runs after the `publish_gem` job
on release events. The job invokes the generation script with the
release tag name, then pushes the updated gh-pages branch to deploy
the documentation.
4. **CI validation** (see `.github/workflows/ci.yml`)
Added a `yard` job that runs YARD validation with `--no-output`.
This ensures YARD can successfully parse the codebase (without
generating output), catching documentation issues early in CI.
5. **YARD dependencies** (see `Gemfile`)
Added `yard` and `yard-sorbet` gems as development dependencies to
support documentation validation in CI.
YARD documentation is automatically generated and hosted by
RubyDoc.info when the gem is published to RubyGems.org.
6. **Documentation links** (see `README.md` and `mcp.gemspec`)
Added links to the published API documentation on RubyDoc.info in
the README and gemspec metadata.
Documentation URL
-----------------
Custom documentation will be available at:
https://modelcontextprotocol.github.io/ruby-sdk/
RubyDoc.info documentation will be accessible at:
- https://rubydoc.info/gems/mcp (latest version)
- https://rubydoc.info/gems/mcp/1.2.3 (specific versions)
Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
