Fix: Handle error responses in Streamable HTTP SSE streams (modelcontextprotocol#1390)

Co-authored-by: Felix Weinberger <3823880+felixweinberger@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: DePasqualeOrg

.changeset/fix-streamable-http-error-response.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@modelcontextprotocol/client': patch
+---
+
+Fix StreamableHTTPClientTransport to handle error responses in SSE streams

packages/client/src/client/streamableHttp.ts

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import type { FetchLike, JSONRPCMessage, Transport } from '@modelcontextprotocol
 import {
     createFetchWithInit,
     isInitializedNotification,
+    isJSONRPCErrorResponse,
     isJSONRPCRequest,
     isJSONRPCResultResponse,
     JSONRPCMessageSchema,
@@ -412,7 +413,8 @@ export class StreamableHTTPClientTransport implements Transport {
                     if (!event.event || event.event === 'message') {
                         try {
                             const message = JSONRPCMessageSchema.parse(JSON.parse(event.data));
-                            if (isJSONRPCResultResponse(message)) {
+                            // Handle both success AND error responses for completion detection and ID remapping
+                            if (isJSONRPCResultResponse(message) || isJSONRPCErrorResponse(message)) {
                                 // Mark that we received a response - no need to reconnect for this request
                                 receivedResponse = true;
                                 if (replayMessageId !== undefined) {

packages/client/test/client/streamableHttp.test.ts

@@ -1008,6 +1008,78 @@ describe('StreamableHTTPClientTransport', () => {
             expect(fetchMock.mock.calls[0]![1]?.method).toBe('POST');
         });
 
+        it('should NOT reconnect a POST stream when error response was received', async () => {
+            // ARRANGE
+            transport = new StreamableHTTPClientTransport(new URL('http://localhost:1234/mcp'), {
+                reconnectionOptions: {
+                    initialReconnectionDelay: 10,
+                    maxRetries: 1,
+                    maxReconnectionDelay: 1000,
+                    reconnectionDelayGrowFactor: 1
+                }
+            });
+
+            const messageSpy = vi.fn();
+            transport.onmessage = messageSpy;
+
+            // Create a stream that sends:
+            // 1. Priming event with ID (enables potential reconnection)
+            // 2. An error response (should also prevent reconnection, just like success)
+            // 3. Then closes
+            const streamWithErrorResponse = new ReadableStream({
+                start(controller) {
+                    // Priming event with ID
+                    controller.enqueue(new TextEncoder().encode('id: priming-123\ndata: \n\n'));
+                    // An error response to the request (tool not found, for example)
+                    controller.enqueue(
+                        new TextEncoder().encode(
+                            'id: error-456\ndata: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","error":{"code":-32602,"message":"Tool not found"},"id":"request-1"}\n\n'
+                        )
+                    );
+                    // Stream closes normally
+                    controller.close();
+                }
+            });
+
+            const fetchMock = global.fetch as Mock;
+            fetchMock.mockResolvedValueOnce({
+                ok: true,
+                status: 200,
+                headers: new Headers({ 'content-type': 'text/event-stream' }),
+                body: streamWithErrorResponse
+            });
+
+            const requestMessage: JSONRPCRequest = {
+                jsonrpc: '2.0',
+                method: 'tools/call',
+                id: 'request-1',
+                params: { name: 'nonexistent-tool' }
+            };
+
+            // ACT
+            await transport.start();
+            await transport.send(requestMessage);
+            await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(50);
+
+            // ASSERT
+            // THE KEY ASSERTION: Fetch was called ONCE only - no reconnection!
+            // The error response was received, so no need to reconnect.
+            expect(fetchMock).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+            expect(fetchMock.mock.calls[0]![1]?.method).toBe('POST');
+
+            // Verify the error response was delivered to the message handler
+            expect(messageSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+                expect.objectContaining({
+                    jsonrpc: '2.0',
+                    error: expect.objectContaining({
+                        code: -32602,
+                        message: 'Tool not found'
+                    }),
+                    id: 'request-1'
+                })
+            );
+        });
+
         it('should not attempt reconnection after close() is called', async () => {
             // ARRANGE
             transport = new StreamableHTTPClientTransport(new URL('http://localhost:1234/mcp'), {