MCP wire names mis-parse server IDs containing double underscores

MCP wire names mis-parse server IDs containing double underscores

Summary

buildMcpToolWireName() formats MCP tool names as mcp__<serverId>__<toolName>. The normalizer allows underscores, including double underscores, but parseMcpToolWireName() splits on the first __ after the mcp__ prefix. As a result, a server ID containing __ is parsed as a different server/tool pair.

Affected revision

Observed on main at 9ad10eb0e1ed75f864ca8cbda7f659f7c3b163e9.

Affected code

• src/mcp/runtime/wireName.ts:4 documents the format as mcp__<serverId>__<toolName>.
• src/mcp/runtime/wireName.ts:6-9 documents the allowed segment characters as [A-Za-z0-9_-], which permits underscores.
• src/mcp/runtime/wireName.ts:12-13 builds the wire name.
• src/mcp/runtime/wireName.ts:21-24 parses by splitting at the first __.

Reproduction

From the repository root:

cat > repro-wire-name.mts <<'EOF'
import {
  buildMcpToolWireName,
  parseMcpToolWireName,
} from "./src/mcp/runtime/wireName.ts";

const serverId = "0__A";
const toolName = "a";
const wireName = buildMcpToolWireName(serverId, toolName);
const parsed = parseMcpToolWireName(wireName);

console.log({
  serverId,
  toolName,
  wireName,
  parsed,
  expected: { serverId, toolName },
  roundTrips: parsed?.serverId === serverId && parsed?.toolName === toolName,
});
EOF

pnpm exec tsx repro-wire-name.mts
rm repro-wire-name.mts

Observed output:

{
  serverId: '0__A',
  toolName: 'a',
  wireName: 'mcp__0__A__a',
  parsed: { serverId: '0', toolName: 'A__a' },
  expected: { serverId: '0__A', toolName: 'a' },
  roundTrips: false
}

Expected behavior

A wire name created by buildMcpToolWireName(serverId, toolName) should parse back to the same normalized server/tool identity, or the builder should reject or escape delimiter sequences that cannot be parsed unambiguously.

Actual behavior

Server IDs containing __ are accepted by the builder but parsed as a different server ID and tool name.

Impact

An MCP server ID that naturally normalizes to a string containing double underscores can route calls to the wrong server/tool identity after parsing. This is especially easy to miss because both the built wire name and parsed result are syntactically valid.

Existing coverage

I could not find an existing issue or pull request covering this ambiguous MCP wire-name parsing case.

Suggested fix

Make the format unambiguous. Options include escaping segment delimiters, rejecting/collapsing __ inside normalized segments, or using an encoded representation for the two segments. Add a regression test that builds and parses a server ID containing __.

Suggested tests

• serverId = "0__A" and toolName = "a" round-trips correctly or is rejected by the builder.
• Sanitized server IDs that contain underscores do not get split into the wrong server/tool pair.
• Parser rejects malformed ambiguous wire names if delimiter escaping/rejection is chosen.

---

Submitted with Codex.

Start with src/mcp/runtime/wireName.ts, especially buildMcpToolWireName() and parseMcpToolWireName(). Run the provided pnpm exec tsx reproduction to confirm the incorrect split, then inspect nearby coverage or test conventions. Done means double-underscore server IDs round-trip correctly or are rejected, with a regression test covering the chosen behavior.