ruby-sdk/docs/building-clients.md

layout	title	nav_order
default	Building Clients	4

Building an MCP Client

The MCP::Client class provides an interface for interacting with MCP servers.

Supported operations:

• Tool listing (MCP::Client#tools) and invocation (MCP::Client#call_tool)
• Resource listing (MCP::Client#resources) and reading (MCP::Client#read_resource)
• Resource template listing (MCP::Client#resource_templates)
• Prompt listing (MCP::Client#prompts) and retrieval (MCP::Client#get_prompt)
• Completion requests (MCP::Client#complete)

Handshake

Call MCP::Client#connect to perform the MCP initialization handshake before sending any other requests. The client sends an initialize request through the transport, followed by the required notifications/initialized notification, and caches the server's InitializeResult (protocol version, capabilities, server info, instructions):

client.connect
# => { "protocolVersion" => "2026-07-28", "capabilities" => {...}, "serverInfo" => {...} }

client.connected?  # => true
client.server_info # => cached InitializeResult

connect accepts optional client_info:, protocol_version:, and capabilities: keyword arguments. It is idempotent: a second call returns the cached result without contacting the server. After close, state is cleared and connect will handshake again.

This applies to both the Stdio and HTTP transports below.

Stdio Transport

Use MCP::Client::Stdio to interact with MCP servers running as subprocesses:

stdio_transport = MCP::Client::Stdio.new(
  command: "bundle",
  args: ["exec", "ruby", "path/to/server.rb"],
  env: { "API_KEY" => "my_secret_key" },
  read_timeout: 30
)
client = MCP::Client.new(transport: stdio_transport)
client.connect

tools = client.tools
tools.each do |tool|
  puts "Tool: #{tool.name} - #{tool.description}"
end

response = client.call_tool(
  tool: tools.first,
  arguments: { message: "Hello, world!" }
)

stdio_transport.close

Parameter	Required	Description
command:	Yes	The command to spawn the server process.
args:	No	An array of arguments passed to the command. Defaults to [].
env:	No	A hash of environment variables for the server process. Defaults to nil.
read_timeout:	No	Timeout in seconds for waiting for a server response. Defaults to nil.
max_line_bytes:	No	Maximum byte length of a single newline-delimited response frame. A frame that reaches this limit without a newline is rejected as a transport error, preventing unbounded memory growth from a server that never emits a newline. Defaults to 4 * 1024 * 1024 (4 MiB).

HTTP Transport

Use MCP::Client::HTTP to interact with MCP servers over HTTP. Requires the faraday gem, plus event_stream_parser if the server uses SSE (text/event-stream) responses:

gem 'mcp'
gem 'faraday', '>= 2.0'
gem 'event_stream_parser', '>= 1.0' # optional, required only for SSE responses

http_transport = MCP::Client::HTTP.new(url: "https://api.example.com/mcp")
client = MCP::Client.new(transport: http_transport)
client.connect

tools = client.tools
tools.each do |tool|
  puts "Tool: #{tool.name} - #{tool.description}"
end

response = client.call_tool(
  tool: tools.first,
  arguments: { message: "Hello, world!" }
)

Sessions

After connect succeeds, the HTTP transport captures the Mcp-Session-Id header and protocolVersion from the response and includes them on subsequent requests. Both are exposed on the transport as transport-specific state:

http_transport.session_id       # => "abc123..."
http_transport.protocol_version # => "2026-07-28"

If the server terminates the session, subsequent requests return HTTP 404 and the transport raises MCP::Client::SessionExpiredError (a subclass of RequestHandlerError). Session state is cleared automatically; callers should start a new session by calling connect again.

To explicitly terminate a session (e.g., when the client application is shutting down), call close. The transport sends an HTTP DELETE to the MCP endpoint with the session header and clears local session state. A 405 Method Not Allowed response (server doesn't support client-initiated termination) or 404 Not Found (session already terminated server-side) is treated as success. Other errors — 5xx, authentication failures, connection errors — propagate to the caller. Local session state is cleared either way. Calling close without an active session is a no-op.

http_transport.close

Authorization

Provide custom headers for authentication:

http_transport = MCP::Client::HTTP.new(
  url: "https://api.example.com/mcp",
  headers: {
    "Authorization" => "Bearer my_token"
  }
)
client = MCP::Client.new(transport: http_transport)

Customizing the Faraday Connection

Pass a block to customize the underlying Faraday connection:

http_transport = MCP::Client::HTTP.new(url: "https://api.example.com/mcp") do |faraday|
  faraday.use MyApp::Middleware::HttpRecorder
  faraday.adapter :typhoeus
end

Custom Transport

If the built-in transports do not fit your needs, you can implement your own:

class CustomTransport
  def send_request(request:)
    # Your transport-specific logic here.
    # Returns a Hash modeling a JSON-RPC response object.
  end
end

client = MCP::Client.new(transport: CustomTransport.new)

For more details, see the full README.