{"id":1394,"date":"2026-08-15T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/?p=1394"},"modified":"2026-08-15T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T17:00:00","slug":"mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"MCP Going Stateless Is the Boring Fix It Needed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Model Context Protocol is useful because it gives agents a common way to call tools. It becomes much less appealing when a simple remote tool also needs session storage, sticky routing, and a pile of lifecycle code. The protocol going stateless is exactly the sort of boring simplification it needed.<\/p>\n<p>GitHub&#8217;s write-up on the <a href=\"https:\/\/github.blog\/changelog\/2026-07-23-github-mcp-server-supports-the-next-mcp-specification\/\">new stateless MCP specification<\/a> explains the practical win nicely. Sessions and the <code>initialize<\/code> exchange are removed, clients can perform the handshake in parallel, and ordinary HTTP headers carry information that previously required inspecting request bodies. Multi round-trip requests still allow interactive flows without turning the whole connection into server-side state.<\/p>\n<p>GitHub removed Redis-backed sessions from its own MCP server as a result. That means no database write during initialisation and no session read on each tool call. This is not a glamorous feature, but it makes horizontal scaling, failure recovery, and serverless deployment much less awkward. Those are the details that decide whether a protocol is pleasant to run rather than merely nice in a demo.<\/p>\n<p>Backward-compatible SDK support means existing clients and servers do not have to jump immediately. I would still treat stateless operation as the target for new remote MCP services. Agent tools already have enough security and observability questions to solve without inventing a distributed session problem as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MCP&#8217;s stateless core removes deployment plumbing that should never have been the interesting part of an agent tool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[123,155,64,127],"class_list":["post-1394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programming","tag-ai-agents","tag-github","tag-infrastructure","tag-mcp"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MCP Going Stateless Is the Boring Fix It Needed - wade.one<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MCP Going Stateless Is the Boring Fix It Needed - wade.one\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MCP&#039;s stateless core removes deployment plumbing that should never have been the interesting part of an agent tool.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"wade.one\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-15T17:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Wade-Logo-cropped.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1518\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@wadewomersley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@wadewomersley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/15\\\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/15\\\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"MCP Going Stateless Is the Boring Fix It Needed\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-15T17:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/15\\\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":226,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8b4739f8f8bb2cff5d792d4b8779fcc3\"},\"keywords\":[\"ai-agents\",\"github\",\"infrastructure\",\"mcp\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Programming\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/15\\\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/15\\\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\\\/\",\"name\":\"MCP Going Stateless Is the Boring Fix It Needed - wade.one\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-15T17:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/15\\\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/15\\\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/15\\\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MCP Going Stateless Is the Boring Fix It Needed\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"wade.one\",\"description\":\"wade womersley - york based software engineer\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8b4739f8f8bb2cff5d792d4b8779fcc3\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8b4739f8f8bb2cff5d792d4b8779fcc3\",\"name\":\"Wade Womersley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/200px.png\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/200px.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/200px.png\",\"width\":202,\"height\":200,\"caption\":\"Wade Womersley\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wade.one\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/02\\\/200px.png\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MCP Going Stateless Is the Boring Fix It Needed - wade.one","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"MCP Going Stateless Is the Boring Fix It Needed - wade.one","og_description":"MCP's stateless core removes deployment plumbing that should never have been the interesting part of an agent tool.","og_url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/","og_site_name":"wade.one","article_published_time":"2026-08-15T17:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1518,"height":1506,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Wade-Logo-cropped.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@wadewomersley","twitter_site":"@wadewomersley","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"MCP Going Stateless Is the Boring Fix It Needed","datePublished":"2026-08-15T17:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/"},"wordCount":226,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b4739f8f8bb2cff5d792d4b8779fcc3"},"keywords":["ai-agents","github","infrastructure","mcp"],"articleSection":["Programming"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/","url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/","name":"MCP Going Stateless Is the Boring Fix It Needed - wade.one","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-08-15T17:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/08\/15\/mcp-going-stateless-is-the-boring-fix-it-needed\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MCP Going Stateless Is the Boring Fix It Needed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/","name":"wade.one","description":"wade womersley - york based software engineer","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b4739f8f8bb2cff5d792d4b8779fcc3"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b4739f8f8bb2cff5d792d4b8779fcc3","name":"Wade Womersley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/200px.png","url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/200px.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/200px.png","width":202,"height":200,"caption":"Wade Womersley"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/200px.png"}}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1247,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/05\/01\/docker-mcp-shows-why-agent-tools-need-boring-infrastructure\/","url_meta":{"origin":1394,"position":0},"title":"Docker MCP Shows Why Agent Tools Need Boring Infrastructure","author":"","date":"May 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The more agents use real tools, the more they need boring infrastructure: isolation, versioning, profiles, credentials, and repeatable setup.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AI&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AI","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/category\/ai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1329,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/06\/02\/github-copilot-coding-agent-needs-workflow-rules-not-just-access\/","url_meta":{"origin":1394,"position":1},"title":"GitHub Copilot Coding Agent Needs Workflow Rules, Not Just Access","author":"Wade","date":"June 2, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"GitHub Copilot's coding agent is useful, but I would want explicit workflow rules around permissions, networking, and review before giving it real access.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AI&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AI","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/category\/ai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1245,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/04\/30\/documentation-now-needs-to-work-for-ai-agents-too\/","url_meta":{"origin":1394,"position":2},"title":"Documentation Now Needs to Work for AI Agents Too","author":"Wade","date":"April 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Developer documentation is becoming an interface for AI agents as well as humans. That means clean markdown, metadata, and tool access matter more.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AI&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AI","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/category\/ai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1303,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/05\/15\/github-agent-hq-makes-ai-coding-a-platform-choice\/","url_meta":{"origin":1394,"position":3},"title":"GitHub Agent HQ Makes AI Coding a Platform Choice","author":"","date":"May 15, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"GitHub adding Claude and Codex agent choices is a sign that AI coding is becoming a platform layer, not just a model picker.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AI&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AI","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/category\/ai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1243,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/04\/29\/next-js-is-starting-to-treat-ai-agents-as-real-users\/","url_meta":{"origin":1394,"position":4},"title":"Next.js Is Starting to Treat AI Agents as Real Users","author":"","date":"April 29, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Next.js is starting to treat AI agents as real users of the framework. That is more important than it first sounds.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AI&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AI","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/category\/ai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1239,"url":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/2026\/04\/27\/copilot-autopilot-sounds-useful-but-guardrails-matter\/","url_meta":{"origin":1394,"position":5},"title":"Copilot Autopilot Sounds Useful, but Guardrails Matter","author":"","date":"April 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Autonomous coding sessions can be useful, but only when teams are clear about permissions, tests, and what still needs a human decision.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AI&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AI","link":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/category\/ai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1412,"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions\/1412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wade.one\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}