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An MCP server can change its available tools, prompts, or resources without an agent seeing the update right away. The reason is usually cache freshness and change-notification behavior: the protocol provides ways for a client to discover server capabilities and subscribe to change signals, but the client must support and use those mechanisms, then fetch the changed list. A notification is not the updated catalog.
Why an MCP agent can keep seeing yesterday’s tools
The server’s catalog and the client’s view of it are separate. A client may cache results from list methods such as tools/list. If the server later changes its tools, prompts, or resources, the client needs a way to learn that its cached view is stale and a way to retrieve the new list.
In the MCP revision dated July 28, 2026, clients can opt in to change notifications through subscriptions/listen. The client selects relevant event types—toolsListChanged, promptsListChanged, or resourcesListChanged—and the server acknowledges the subscription. When a change signal arrives, the client should fetch the affected list again. The signal says that the list changed; it does not carry the replacement catalog. See the official specification changelog and the TypeScript SDK notification documentation.
Discovery is not ongoing change detection
server/discover can tell a client about a server’s identity, capabilities, and supported protocol versions before other requests. It is optional and provides an initial view; it does not, by itself, subscribe the client to later catalog changes. For ongoing change signals, the client needs the relevant subscription and must act on its notifications.
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The July 28, 2026 release announcement describes discovery as an optional RPC: “If a client wants to learn a server’s capabilities before doing anything else, there’s a new server/discover Remote Procedure Call (RPC) for that; however, it is not required.” Read the maintainers’ release announcement for the revision’s overview.
Check the protocol revision before debugging the client
MCP behavior depends on the revision implemented by both sides. The revision dated July 28, 2026 describes a stateless protocol core: it retires the earlier initialize/initialized exchange and the Mcp-Session-Id header. Requests instead carry protocol version, client identity, and client capabilities in metadata. Earlier revisions used the handshake, so an older client or server may not follow the newer assumptions.
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Protocol support on paper is not proof that a deployed host or SDK uses it. The maintainers’ release post identifies updated Tier 1 SDKs and notes migration work for implementations that depend on sessions. Confirm the actual revision and implementation in your deployment rather than inferring support from the server’s advertised features.
Use this checklist to find where freshness breaks
- Identify both protocol revisions. Check the client/host and server versions and confirm whether they use the July 28, 2026 stateless design or an earlier handshake-based revision. The changelog and release announcement describe the revision differences.
- Check initial discovery separately. If the client uses
server/discover, verify that it receives the capabilities and protocol-version information it expects. Do not treat a successful discovery call as a continuing update subscription. - Verify the relevant subscription. Confirm the client subscribes to the change type it needs—tools, prompts, or resources—and that the server acknowledges the subscription on the
subscriptions/listenstream. - Trace what happens after the signal. When a change notification arrives, confirm the client requests the affected list again, such as with
tools/list, rather than waiting for the notification to contain new entries. - Inspect cache behavior. Review how the client and any shared intermediary handle the list response’s
ttlMsandcacheScopevalues. A time-to-live is a freshness hint in milliseconds;cacheScopeindicates whether results are public or private for shared-cache purposes. These values guide caching, not instant universal invalidation. - Check SDK and host deployment status. Verify that the running SDK and host actually implement the needed revision, subscription, notification, and refresh behavior. Session-dependent integrations may require migration.
What the cache hints do—and do not do
List and read results can include ttlMs and cacheScope. The server supplies a freshness hint through ttlMs; cacheScope can be public or private and indicates whether shared intermediaries may cache a result. Neither field means every client will receive a change immediately. A client or intermediary that ignores the hints, or a client that never refreshes its view, can continue to use stale data.
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The specification also recommends deterministic tool ordering. Stable ordering helps clients cache lists consistently and supports prompt-cache stability, but it does not notify clients when the list changes. Freshness still depends on the client’s refresh strategy and any change subscription it uses. See the specification changelog.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Review a changed tool catalog as a security event
A new or altered tool is not automatically malicious, but it can change what an agent is able to do. When a catalog changes unexpectedly, review the new capabilities and verify that the server and client still enforce the intended access controls before allowing the agent to use them.
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The NSA’s May 2026 guidance, Model Context Protocol (MCP): Security Design Considerations, says MCP security remains uneven and depends substantially on implementation discipline rather than protocol guarantees. A protocol-level notification or discovery response is not a security review.
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