fix(server): prioritize zod issues and format them (#1503)

Co-authored-by: mozmo15 <mozmo@mail.com>
Co-authored-by: Felix Weinberger <fweinberger@anthropic.com>

.changeset/fix-zod-error-message-priority.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@modelcontextprotocol/sdk': patch
+---
+
+Prioritize `error.issues[].message` over `error.message` in `getParseErrorMessage` so custom Zod error messages surface correctly. In Zod v4, `error.message` is a JSON blob of all issues, not a readable string.

src/server/zod-compat.ts

@@ -188,6 +188,21 @@ export function normalizeObjectSchema(schema: AnySchema | ZodRawShapeCompat | un
     return undefined;
 }
 
+function getDotPath(path: (string | number)[]) {
+    if (path.length === 0) {
+        return 'object root';
+    }
+    return path.reduce((acc, seg, index) => {
+        if (index === 0) {
+            return String(seg);
+        }
+        if (typeof seg === 'number') {
+            return `${acc}[${seg}]`;
+        }
+        return `${acc}.${seg}`;
+    }, '');
+}
+
 // --- Error message extraction ---
 /**
  * Safely extracts an error message from a parse result error.
@@ -195,16 +210,21 @@ export function normalizeObjectSchema(schema: AnySchema | ZodRawShapeCompat | un
  */
 export function getParseErrorMessage(error: unknown): string {
     if (error && typeof error === 'object') {
+        // When present, prioritize zod issues and format as a message and path
+        if ('issues' in error && Array.isArray(error.issues) && error.issues.length > 0) {
+            return error.issues
+                .map((i: { message: string; path?: (string | number)[] }) => {
+                    if (!i.path?.length) {
+                        return i.message;
+                    }
+                    return `${i.message} at ${getDotPath(i.path)}`;
+                })
+                .join('\n');
+        }
         // Try common error structures
         if ('message' in error && typeof error.message === 'string') {
             return error.message;
         }
-        if ('issues' in error && Array.isArray(error.issues) && error.issues.length > 0) {
-            const firstIssue = error.issues[0];
-            if (firstIssue && typeof firstIssue === 'object' && 'message' in firstIssue) {
-                return String(firstIssue.message);
-            }
-        }
         // Fallback: try to stringify the error
         try {
             return JSON.stringify(error);