Transports
Learn about MCP’s communication mechanisms
Transports in the Model Context Protocol (MCP) provide the foundation for communication between clients and servers. A transport handles the underlying mechanics of how messages are sent and received.
Message Format
MCP uses JSON-RPC 2.0 as its wire format. The transport layer is responsible for converting MCP protocol messages into JSON-RPC format for transmission and converting received JSON-RPC messages back into MCP protocol messages.
There are three types of JSON-RPC messages used:
Requests
Responses
Notifications
Built-in Transport Types
MCP includes two standard transport implementations:
Standard Input/Output (stdio)
The stdio transport enables communication through standard input and output streams. This is particularly useful for local integrations and command-line tools.
Use stdio when:
- Building command-line tools
- Implementing local integrations
- Needing simple process communication
- Working with shell scripts
Server-Sent Events (SSE)
SSE transport enables server-to-client streaming with HTTP POST requests for client-to-server communication.
Use SSE when:
- Only server-to-client streaming is needed
- Working with restricted networks
- Implementing simple updates
Custom Transports
MCP makes it easy to implement custom transports for specific needs. Any transport implementation just needs to conform to the Transport interface:
You can implement custom transports for:
- Custom network protocols
- Specialized communication channels
- Integration with existing systems
- Performance optimization
Error Handling
Transport implementations should handle various error scenarios:
- Connection errors
- Message parsing errors
- Protocol errors
- Network timeouts
- Resource cleanup
Example error handling:
Best Practices
When implementing or using MCP transport:
- Handle connection lifecycle properly
- Implement proper error handling
- Clean up resources on connection close
- Use appropriate timeouts
- Validate messages before sending
- Log transport events for debugging
- Implement reconnection logic when appropriate
- Handle backpressure in message queues
- Monitor connection health
- Implement proper security measures
Security Considerations
When implementing transport:
Authentication and Authorization
- Implement proper authentication mechanisms
- Validate client credentials
- Use secure token handling
- Implement authorization checks
Data Security
- Use TLS for network transport
- Encrypt sensitive data
- Validate message integrity
- Implement message size limits
- Sanitize input data
Network Security
- Implement rate limiting
- Use appropriate timeouts
- Handle denial of service scenarios
- Monitor for unusual patterns
- Implement proper firewall rules
Debugging Transport
Tips for debugging transport issues:
- Enable debug logging
- Monitor message flow
- Check connection states
- Validate message formats
- Test error scenarios
- Use network analysis tools
- Implement health checks
- Monitor resource usage
- Test edge cases
- Use proper error tracking
Was this page helpful?