## Motivation and Context
SEP-2352 (modelcontextprotocol/modelcontextprotocol#2352, merged for the 2026-07-28 spec release) clarifies
authorization server binding and migration: clients MUST key persisted client credentials by the issuing
authorization server's issuer identifier, MUST NOT reuse credentials across different authorization servers,
and MUST re-register when the server's authorization server changes. CIMD `client_id`s (HTTPS URLs) are
explicitly portable across authorization servers, and a mismatch SHOULD surface an error rather than silently use
mismatched credentials.
The Ruby flow previously reused any stored `client_information` with a `client_id` unconditionally,
so a server that migrated to a new authorization server would have the old server's credentials
(and its dead tokens) replayed forever. This change follows the detect-change, invalidate,
and re-register approach that both reference SDKs converged on (typescript-sdk#2348/#2358, merged 2026-06-24;
python-sdk#2933/#2936/#2946, which uses the same proactive compare-before-reuse design as this change)
while keeping the 4-method storage contract intact by stamping the binding into the persisted hash:
- Successful Dynamic Client Registration now persists the credentials with an `"issuer"` member set to
the validated AS metadata `issuer` (which `ensure_issuer_matches!` has already pinned to the discovery URL).
- `Flow#ensure_client_registered` reuses stored credentials only when the stored issuer matches the current one.
Credentials without an issuer binding (data persisted by older SDK versions, or user-supplied pre-registered credentials)
are bound to the current issuer on first use. A portable CIMD `client_id` is reused and re-bound.
Any other issuer mismatch discards the stale registration and its tokens (tokens minted by the old AS are dead at the new one)
and re-registers via CIMD/DCR.
- `Flow#refresh!` raises `AuthorizationError` instead of replaying another authorization server's credentials at the token endpoint;
`MCP::Client::HTTP#attempt_refresh` already rescues that error and falls back to the full flow, which performs
the discard-and-re-register.
- The `client_credentials` grant (machine-to-machine) reads static pre-registered credentials without going through
`ensure_client_registered`, so it would have silently sent another authorization server's credentials after a migration.
`run_client_credentials!` now surfaces an `AuthorizationError` when the stored `issuer` mismatches the current authorization server,
implementing the spec's "SHOULD surface an error" (the TypeScript SDK raises `AuthorizationServerMismatchError` here).
Re-registration is not an option for pre-registered m2m credentials, so the operator must update the stored credentials;
credentials without a recorded issuer keep working unchanged.
Two adjacent hardenings from the reference implementations were checked and need no change here:
the legacy-fallback issuer stamp is self-consistent because this SDK's fallback registers at the same origin it
uses as the issuer (the cross-origin never-reached-AS binding python-sdk#2946 closed cannot arise),
and preserving a non-rotated `refresh_token` across refreshes already exists via `preserve_refresh_token`.
The TypeScript SDK's redirected-to-issuer callback gate is not adopted: the RFC 9207 `iss` validation (SEP-2468) covers that mix-up leg.
Resolves#385.
## How Has This Been Tested?
New tests in `test/mcp/client/oauth/flow_test.rb`:
- stored credentials with a matching issuer skip DCR
- an issuer mismatch re-registers and persists the new `client_id` with the new issuer
- the stale registration's tokens are cleared before re-registration (observed by aborting the flow at the DCR step)
- legacy credentials without an issuer (string- and symbol-keyed) are reused and bound to the current issuer on first use
- a CIMD `client_id` with a mismatched issuer is reused without DCR and re-bound
- fresh DCR persists the issuer binding
- `refresh!` succeeds with a matching stored issuer and raises (without contacting the token endpoint) with a mismatched one
- the `client_credentials` grant succeeds with a matching stored issuer and raises (without contacting the token endpoint) with
a mismatched one
All existing flow, HTTP OAuth, and provider tests pass unchanged.
## Breaking Changes
None for the documented storage contract: `client_information` hashes gain an additional `"issuer"` member that storages persist opaquely,
and credentials stored without one keep working via first-use binding. Behavior changes only in the previously broken case where
the authorization server changed, which now re-registers (or, for static machine-to-machine credentials, surfaces an error) instead of
replaying the old server's credentials.
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