## Motivation and Context
The MCP 2025-03-26 authorization spec predates Protected Resource Metadata:
the MCP server itself acted as the authorization base URL, its RFC 8414 metadata was fetched from
the server origin, and the spec's "Fallbacks for Servers without Metadata Discovery" section
required clients to use the default endpoints `/authorize`, `/token`, and `/register` relative to
the authorization base URL when no metadata was published. Both the TypeScript SDK
(`discoverOAuthServerInfo` falls back to the server base URL on PRM failure; `startAuthorization` /
`executeTokenRequest` / `registerClient` default the endpoint paths) and the Python SDK
(`build_oauth_authorization_server_metadata_discovery_urls(None, ...)` plus the same endpoint defaults)
keep this as client-side backwards compatibility, and the `auth/2025-03-26-oauth-metadata-backcompat` and
`auth/2025-03-26-oauth-endpoint-fallback` conformance scenarios exercise it.
The Ruby flow previously raised as soon as PRM discovery failed, so both scenarios were
expected conformance failures. This change adds the same fallback:
- `Flow#locate_authorization_server` first attempts PRM discovery; on any discovery failure
(404s, network errors, malformed documents, matching the TypeScript and Python SDKs' broad fallback)
the MCP server's origin becomes the legacy authorization base URL. The Communication Security check
(HTTPS or loopback) still applies to that origin, and PRM documents that parse correctly keep
their strict shape validation.
- `Flow#authorization_server_metadata` fetches RFC 8414 metadata from the base URL.
On the legacy path the `issuer` byte-match is skipped: the 2025-03-26 spec predates that requirement,
and a pre-PRM server may host its OAuth endpoints under a path prefix whose `issuer` legitimately differs
from the discovery origin (neither reference SDK validates the issuer on this path). On the modern path
the byte-match is unchanged.
- When even the metadata document is absent, synthetic metadata carrying the legacy spec's default endpoints
is used, with PKCE S256 assumed (the legacy spec mandates PKCE; the TypeScript and Python SDKs hardcode S256
on this path too). Endpoint HTTPS checks still apply.
- `run!` and `refresh!` share the new discovery helpers, and both 2025-03-26 scenarios are removed from
`conformance/expected_failures.yml`.
## How Has This Been Tested?
New tests in `test/mcp/client/oauth/flow_test.rb`:
- the metadata-backcompat shape: no PRM, AS metadata at the server origin with `/oauth`-prefixed endpoints
and a mismatched `issuer` completes the flow against those endpoints (no issuer error)
- the endpoint-fallback shape: no metadata at all registers, authorizes, and exchanges the code at `/register`,
`/authorize`, and `/token` on the origin, still sending `code_challenge` (S256) and `code_verifier`
- a remote plain-http origin is rejected as the legacy authorization base
- strict-mode regression: with PRM present, a mismatched `issuer` still aborts the flow
- a malformed PRM (top-level JSON array) now selects the legacy path instead of leaking a `TypeError`,
and surfaces a domain error when that path also dead-ends
Two existing tests that asserted PRM failure was terminal were updated to dead-end the legacy path explicitly,
preserving their original intent (single flow attempt, domain error type).
## Breaking Changes
None for spec-compliant 2025-06-18+ servers, whose PRM-based discovery and issuer validation are unchanged.
Servers that previously failed hard during PRM discovery now get one legacy discovery attempt before the flow errors,
which can only turn previously failing flows into working ones.
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