MCP 2026-07-28 removes sessions and turns the protocol stateless
Substantial-Heat-321 · reddit · 2026-07-23
The MCP 2026-07-28 release candidate is set to become final on July 28, and the author argues it looks like a real migration rather than a cosmetic spec bump.
What changes
- The protocol core becomes stateless: Mcp-Session-Id and the initialize/initialized handshake go away.
- Clients move to Mcp-Method and Mcp-Name headers, with server/discover used for capabilities.
- Tasks move into an extension, and tool schemas can use full JSON Schema 2020-12.
- OAuth 2.1 / OIDC authorization hardening is part of the update.
- Roots, Sampling, and Logging are deprecated from core.
Practical implications
The poster expects stateless servers to be easier to scale behind ordinary load balancers, but warns that clients and gateways will need compatibility work before the final date.
What to test
- Session assumptions
- Auth token and resource-indicator handling
- Error-code matching
- Long-running Tasks behavior
The key question for the thread is not whether the design looks cleaner, but which SDKs and integrations are already migration-ready.
Related event: MCP Protocol's Largest Update: Shifting to Stateless on July 28(9 posts)→
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