We recently added outputSchema support for our MCP tools (not yet for
worker routes yet). Today, we always return structuredContent. On tool
execution errors we return structuredContent: {"error": "..."} with
isError: True, even when that shape does not match the tool’s declared
outputSchema. Since the MCP spec says clients SHOULD validate
structuredContent against outputSchema, some clients reject these
responses.
Since structuredContent is optional, we’re going to omit it when
isError: true.
<!-- CURSOR_SUMMARY -->
---
> [!NOTE]
> **Medium Risk**
> Changes the shape of tool error responses across the MCP server, which
may break clients or tools that previously relied on
`structuredContent["error"]` for failures. Behavior is more
spec-compliant but touches core request/response paths and test
expectations.
>
> **Overview**
> Prevents MCP tool error responses from violating a tool’s declared
`outputSchema` by **always setting `structuredContent=None` when
`isError=True`** (server execution errors, unknown tools, middleware
exceptions, and `Context.tools.call_raw` JSON-RPC errors).
>
> Updates requirement-failure error formatting to put the human-friendly
message in `content[0]` and (when present) serialize extra
machine-readable fields (e.g. `authorization_url`, `llm_instructions`)
into an additional `content` item. Examples and integration/unit tests
are updated to read errors from `content[0].text`, and
`arcade-mcp-server` is bumped to `1.19.2`.
>
> <sup>Reviewed by [Cursor Bugbot](https://cursor.com/bugbot) for commit
4213bdd4aa44362de85c30f5f31c576243c132d5. Bugbot is set up for automated
code reviews on this repo. Configure
[here](https://www.cursor.com/dashboard/bugbot).</sup>
<!-- /CURSOR_SUMMARY -->
# Valuable references for the reviewer:
- Docs PR: https://github.com/ArcadeAI/docs/pull/583
- Implements Phase 1 of the following planning doc:
https://linear.app/arcadedev/project/arcade-mcp-supports-mcp-auth-front-door-auth-7cbaa20cb054/overviewhttps://github.com/user-attachments/assets/79ad43fd-f5e8-4793-a1dd-18b35acefdc3
# PR Description
Adds OAuth 2.1 Resource Server authentication to arcade-mcp-server,
enabling HTTP MCP servers to validate Bearer tokens on every request.
This unlocks tool-level authorization and secrets support for HTTP
servers.
- Multiple authorization server support
- Granular token validation options (verify_exp, verify_iat, verify_iss)
- Environment variable configuration
- OAuth discovery metadata endpoint
(/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource)
- Extracts sub claim from token as context.user_id
- Lifts transport restrictions for tools requiring auth/secrets on HTTP
when protected
```python
from arcade_mcp_server import MCPApp
from arcade_mcp_server.resource_server import ResourceServerAuth, AuthorizationServerEntry
resource_server_auth = ResourceServerAuth(
canonical_url="http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp",
authorization_servers=[
AuthorizationServerEntry(
authorization_server_url="https://auth.example.com",
issuer="https://auth.example.com",
jwks_uri="https://auth.example.com/jwks",
)
],
)
app = MCPApp(name="my_server", version="1.0.0", auth=resource_server_auth)
```
# Testing
Beyond the comprehensive unit tests, I also manually tested end-to-end
with WorkOS Authkit (DCR) and KeyCloak (non-DCR).
# Future Work
- CIMD support
- An `ArcadeResourceServer` to make adding front-door auth super easy
when using Arcade's Auth Server
<!-- CURSOR_SUMMARY -->
---
> [!NOTE]
> Adds OAuth 2.1 front-door auth (JWKS validation + OAuth discovery) and
propagates user identity to tools, enabling auth/secret-requiring tools
over HTTP.
>
> - **Authentication (Front-Door OAuth 2.1)**
> - New `resource_server` module with `ResourceServerAuth`
(multi-authorization-server, metadata) and `JWKSTokenValidator`
(JWKS-based JWT validation) plus granular validation options.
> - ASGI `ResourceServerMiddleware` validates Bearer tokens on every
HTTP request and injects `resource_owner`.
> - OAuth discovery endpoint via FastAPI router at
`/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource[/<path>]`.
> - **Integration**
> - `MCPApp`/`worker` accept `auth`/`resource_server_validator`, mount
middleware, expose discovery; logs accepted auth servers.
> - HTTP transport (`http_streamable`) carries `SessionMessage` with
`resource_owner` from request → session.
> - `Context`/`Session`/`Server` plumb `resource_owner`; `Server`
selects `user_id` preferring token `sub`.
> - **Behavior Changes**
> - HTTP transport restriction lifted for tools requiring
`authorization`/`secrets` when request is authenticated; otherwise
blocked with actionable error.
> - **Configuration**
> - Env-var based auth config via `MCP_RESOURCE_SERVER_*` in
`MCPSettings.ResourceServerSettings`; `.env` auto-load.
> - **Telemetry**
> - Usage tracking records `resource_server_type` on server start.
> - **Examples**
> - New `examples/mcp_servers/authorization` sample server (HTTP auth,
secrets, Reddit tool) with Docker setup.
> - **Tests**
> - Extensive unit tests for validators, middleware, env config,
multi-AS, transport rules, and app integration.
> - **Version**
> - Bump `arcade-mcp-server` to `1.12.0`; minor docstring tweak in
`__init__.py`.
>
> <sup>Written by [Cursor
Bugbot](https://cursor.com/dashboard?tab=bugbot) for commit
d1116cdcafb0c7cb8f91e66682eb1fbae380da31. This will update automatically
on new commits. Configure
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<!-- /CURSOR_SUMMARY -->
Resolves TOO-152
# PR Description
Consider this PR the result of a full pass through of this repository.
## Add helper for adding tools to an `MCPApp`
You can now add all of the tools in a module to an `MCPApp` via
`app.add_tools_from_module(...)`
## Edit what `arcade new` generates
First, I updated the backend to use hatchling.
Second, the structure generated before this PR was simple, but did not
create a proper Python module.
This hindered developers in the following ways:
1. Difficult to add the tools in your server to an evaluation suite
2. Difficult to add more than one tool to an MCPApp at a time
3. All other niceties that come with being able to import modules
```
# Before
server/
├── .env.example
├── server.py
└── pyproject.toml
```
This PR updates the structure generated such that a valid Python module
is generated:
```
# After
server/
├── pyproject.toml
└── src/
└── server/
├── __init__.py
├── .env.example
└── server.py
```
## Fix Tool Chaining
`self._ctx.server.executor.run(...)` was being called, but `MCPServer`
does not have an instance of `ToolExecutor` (and it's not intended to be
an instance anyways). I updated `Tool.call_raw` to pass the programmatic
tool call through the `MCPServer._handle_call_tool`. This means that the
programmatic tool calls now go through the same steps that a typical
tool call (initiated by the MCP client) would.
This means that **toolA**, which specifies **requirementsA**, is
permitted to call **toolB**, which specifies **requirementsB**, without
needing to explicitly declare or satisfy **requirementsB**. I believe
this is acceptable because the secrets and/or auth token associated with
**toolB's** `Context` are not exposed to **toolA**, and the secrets
and/or auth token associated with **toolA's** `Context` are not exposed
to **toolB**.
## Fix User Elicitation
1. The read & write streams were created with a maximum queue size of 0.
I increased this to 100.
2. I updated `ServerSession`'s run loop to both read messages from the
stream & process them concurrently. This enables server initiated
requests (like user elicitation and progress reporting) to be handled
while tools are being executed. Otherwise, the server initiated requests
would wait for the tool to finish executing and the tool execution would
wait for the server initiated request to finish.
3.
## Fix Progress Reporting
Progress tokens sent by the client were not being stored. Therefore
there was no way to notify a client with progress updates. I am now
storing the `progressToken`, along with other `_meta` sent from the
client, in the `ServerSession`'s `_request_meta`. I am setting
`_request_meta` whenever the `MCPServer` is handling an incoming message
from a client.
## Fix handling of server names with spaces
Before:
Server name: "The simple server name"
Tool name: whisper_secret
Name seen by client: "The_simple_server_name_WhisperSecret"
After
Server name: "The simple server name"
Tool name: whisper_secret
Name seen by client: "TheSimpleServerName_WhisperSecret"
## Add Integration Tests
The stdio integration test is much more comprehensive than the http
integration test. These tests will let me sleep a bit more at night
## Add Example MCP Servers
Example servers for sampling, user-elicitation, progress reporting,
logging, tool chaining, combining prebuilt tools with custom tools, tool
secrets, tool auth, evaluations, and more!
## Add Docker template
Added a Docker template for running an MCP server in Docker (and removed
the old docker stuff)
Versions:
* arcade-mcp\==1.0.0rc1
* arcade-mcp-server\==1.0.0rc1
* arcade-core\==2.5.0rc1
* arcade-tdk\==2.6.0rc1
* arcade-serve\==2.2.0rc1
### Summary
Adds first-class MCP support across Arcade, introduces a new MCP server
and CLI, unifies the project under the arcade-mcp name, overhauls
templates/scaffolding, and improves developer tooling, secrets
management, and examples.
### Highlights
- **MCP Server & Core**
- New MCP server with stdio and HTTP/SSE transports, session management,
resumability, and lifecycle handling.
- FastAPI-like `MCPApp` for building servers with lazy init; integrated
worker+MCP HTTP app option.
- Middleware system (logging and error handling), robust exception
hierarchy, and Pydantic-based settings.
- Async-safe managers for tools, resources, and prompts backed by
registries and locks.
- Developer-facing, transport-agnostic runtime context interfaces (logs,
tools, prompts, resources, sampling, UI, notifications).
- Conversion from Arcade ToolDefinition to MCP tool schema; OpenAI JSON
tool schema converter.
- Parser supports `@app.tool`/`@app.tool(...)` decorators.
- **CLI**
- New `mcp` command to run MCP servers with stdio or HTTP/SSE.
- New `secret` command to set/list/unset tool secrets (supports .env
input, preserves original casing for lookups).
- `new` command refactored; option to create a full toolkit package with
scaffolding.
- `chat` command removed.
- `serve.py` imports updated to `arcade_serve.fastapi.telemetry`;
version retrieval now uses `arcade-mcp`.
- `show.py` refactor to use new local catalog utilities.
- `display_tool_details` improved: adds “Default” column and handles
nested properties.
- **Configuration & Discovery**
- New `configure.py` to set up Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code to
connect to local or Arcade Cloud MCP servers.
- Discovery utilities to find/install toolkits, build `ToolCatalog`s,
analyze files for tools, load kits from directories (pyproject parsing),
and build minimal toolkits.
- Better handling of provider API key resolution and evaluation suite
loading.
- **Templates & Scaffolding**
- Reorganized template structure (minimal vs full); moved
`.pre-commit-config.yaml`, `.ruff.toml`, license, Makefile, README,
tests, and tools layout to correct paths.
- Minimal template adds `.env.example` for runtime secret injection.
- Template pyproject updated for MCP servers; includes sample server
with greeting and secret-reveal tools.
- Authorization flow in templates simplified.
- **Repo-wide Renaming & Examples**
- Migrates references from `arcade-ai` to `arcade-mcp` across READMEs,
scripts, and package metadata.
- Examples updated (LangChain/LangGraph/AI SDK/TypeScript) and package
name changed to `arcade-mcp-sdk`.
- **Evals & Core Utilities**
- Evals now use OpenAI tooling format (`OpenAIToolList`, `to_openai`);
`tool_eval` takes `provider_api_key`.
- Core utilities: fixed `does_function_return_value` by dedenting before
parse; version bump to `2.5.0rc1` and dependency cleanup.
- **Tooling & CI**
- `setup-uv-env` action splits toolkit vs contrib dependency
installation.
- Pre-commit: excludes `libs/arcade-mcp-server/mkdocs.yml` and
`libs/tests/` from YAML and Ruff hooks; Ruff per-file ignores (e.g.,
C901 in `libs/**/*.py`, TRY400 in server docs paths).
- Makefile updates for uv env setup, quality checks, tests, builds, and
new `shell` target.
- Added Makefile to MCP server library to streamline dev workflow.
- **Cleanup**
- Removed `claude.json` config.
- Simplified stdio entrypoint; removed unused imports (`arcade_gmail`,
`arcade_search`).
### Breaking Changes
- **CLI**: `chat` command removed; use `mcp`, `secret`, and updated
`new`.
- **Naming**: All users should update references from `arcade-ai` to
`arcade-mcp`.
- **Templates**: File paths moved; downstream scripts referencing old
template locations may need updates.
### Getting Started
- Run an MCP server:
- `arcade mcp --stdio --toolkits your_toolkit`
- `arcade mcp --http --toolkits your_toolkit`
- Manage secrets:
- `arcade secret set your_toolkit KEY=value`
- `arcade secret list your_toolkit`
- `arcade secret unset your_toolkit KEY`
- Configure clients:
- `arcade configure` to set up Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code for
local/Arcade Cloud MCP.
---------
Co-authored-by: Sam Partee <sam@arcade-ai.com>
Co-authored-by: Shub <125150494+shubcodes@users.noreply.github.com>
Eric Gustin