Prevent MCP ClientSession hang (#580)

Per
https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/draft/basic/lifecycle#timeouts

"Implementations SHOULD establish timeouts for all sent requests, to
prevent hung connections and resource exhaustion. When the request has
not received a success or error response within the timeout period, the
sender SHOULD issue a cancellation notification for that request and
stop waiting for a response.

SDKs and other middleware SHOULD allow these timeouts to be configured
on a per-request basis."

I picked 5 seconds since that's the default for SSE

src/agents/mcp/server.py

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ from __future__ import annotations
 import abc
 import asyncio
 from contextlib import AbstractAsyncContextManager, AsyncExitStack
+from datetime import timedelta
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Any, Literal
 
@@ -54,7 +55,7 @@ class MCPServer(abc.ABC):
 class _MCPServerWithClientSession(MCPServer, abc.ABC):
     """Base class for MCP servers that use a `ClientSession` to communicate with the server."""
 
-    def __init__(self, cache_tools_list: bool):
+    def __init__(self, cache_tools_list: bool, client_session_timeout_seconds: float | None):
         """
         Args:
             cache_tools_list: Whether to cache the tools list. If `True`, the tools list will be
@@ -63,12 +64,16 @@ class _MCPServerWithClientSession(MCPServer, abc.ABC):
             by calling `invalidate_tools_cache()`. You should set this to `True` if you know the
             server will not change its tools list, because it can drastically improve latency
             (by avoiding a round-trip to the server every time).
+
+            client_session_timeout_seconds: the read timeout passed to the MCP ClientSession.
         """
         self.session: ClientSession | None = None
         self.exit_stack: AsyncExitStack = AsyncExitStack()
         self._cleanup_lock: asyncio.Lock = asyncio.Lock()
         self.cache_tools_list = cache_tools_list
 
+        self.client_session_timeout_seconds = client_session_timeout_seconds
+
         # The cache is always dirty at startup, so that we fetch tools at least once
         self._cache_dirty = True
         self._tools_list: list[MCPTool] | None = None
@@ -101,7 +106,15 @@ class _MCPServerWithClientSession(MCPServer, abc.ABC):
         try:
             transport = await self.exit_stack.enter_async_context(self.create_streams())
             read, write = transport
-            session = await self.exit_stack.enter_async_context(ClientSession(read, write))
+            session = await self.exit_stack.enter_async_context(
+                ClientSession(
+                    read,
+                    write,
+                    timedelta(seconds=self.client_session_timeout_seconds)
+                    if self.client_session_timeout_seconds
+                    else None,
+                )
+            )
             await session.initialize()
             self.session = session
         except Exception as e:
@@ -183,6 +196,7 @@ class MCPServerStdio(_MCPServerWithClientSession):
         params: MCPServerStdioParams,
         cache_tools_list: bool = False,
         name: str | None = None,
+        client_session_timeout_seconds: float | None = 5,
     ):
         """Create a new MCP server based on the stdio transport.
 
@@ -199,8 +213,9 @@ class MCPServerStdio(_MCPServerWithClientSession):
                 improve latency (by avoiding a round-trip to the server every time).
             name: A readable name for the server. If not provided, we'll create one from the
                 command.
+            client_session_timeout_seconds: the read timeout passed to the MCP ClientSession.
         """
-        super().__init__(cache_tools_list)
+        super().__init__(cache_tools_list, client_session_timeout_seconds)
 
         self.params = StdioServerParameters(
             command=params["command"],
@@ -257,6 +272,7 @@ class MCPServerSse(_MCPServerWithClientSession):
         params: MCPServerSseParams,
         cache_tools_list: bool = False,
         name: str | None = None,
+        client_session_timeout_seconds: float | None = 5,
     ):
         """Create a new MCP server based on the HTTP with SSE transport.
 
@@ -274,8 +290,10 @@ class MCPServerSse(_MCPServerWithClientSession):
 
             name: A readable name for the server. If not provided, we'll create one from the
                 URL.
+
+            client_session_timeout_seconds: the read timeout passed to the MCP ClientSession.
         """
-        super().__init__(cache_tools_list)
+        super().__init__(cache_tools_list, client_session_timeout_seconds)
 
         self.params = params
         self._name = name or f"sse: {self.params['url']}"

tests/mcp/test_server_errors.py

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ from agents.mcp.server import _MCPServerWithClientSession
 
 class CrashingClientSessionServer(_MCPServerWithClientSession):
     def __init__(self):
-        super().__init__(cache_tools_list=False)
+        super().__init__(cache_tools_list=False, client_session_timeout_seconds=5)
         self.cleanup_called = False
 
     def create_streams(self):