BigQuery MCP sample stops working after the access token expires
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Assessment
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Newbie friendliness
- 75/100
Research direction
Start in contributing/samples/integrations/bigquery_mcp/agent.py and inspect how credentials and the McpToolset Authorization header are initialized. Run the sample or the minimal reproduction, then verify that a long-running process can call list_dataset_ids successfully after the original token expires without restarting.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
🔴 Required Information
Describe the Bug:
The bigquery_mcp sample (contributing/samples/integrations/bigquery_mcp/agent.py) fetches an
Application Default Credentials access token once, when the module is imported, and passes it as a
fixed Authorization header on the McpToolset. Access tokens expire after about an hour, and
nothing refreshes this one, so in a long-running adk web or adk api_server process every
BigQuery MCP call fails after the first hour until the process is restarted.
The session manager's own ADC refresh does not help here: it is only used on the mTLS path, and it
skips requests that already have an Authorization header.
Steps to Reproduce:
gcloud auth application-default login- Load the sample and call the
list_dataset_idstool: it works. - Keep the same process running for more than an hour and call the tool again.
Expected Behavior:
The toolset keeps working as long as the process runs, refreshing the token when it expires.
Observed Behavior:
The first call works. After the token expires, about an hour later in the same process, the
tool call is rejected, while the same call with a refreshed token still works:
09:12:57 before expiry, current sample: OK, list_dataset_ids returned 52 datasets
09:13:00 before expiry, fixed sample : OK, list_dataset_ids returned 52 datasets
10:18:17 current sample credentials valid: False
10:18:18 after expiry, current sample : FAILED (tool call rejected)
10:18:20 after expiry, fixed sample : OK, list_dataset_ids returned 52 datasets
Note that tools/list on this server does not require a valid token, so listing tools still
succeeds with an expired one. The failure only shows on a tool call.
Environment Details:
- ADK Library Version (pip show google-adk): main (d57c84f1)
- Desktop OS: macOS
- Python Version (python -V): 3.11
Model Information:
- Are you using LiteLLM: No
- Which model is being used: N/A (the failure is in the MCP call, before the model)
🟡 Optional Information
Regression:
No. The sample has always fetched the token once at import.
Additional Context:
A header_provider that refreshes the credentials when they are no longer valid fixes it, and
works on both the mTLS and the regular endpoint. I have a small PR ready.
Minimal Reproduction Code:
# Calls list_dataset_ids with the headers the sample's toolset holds, waits for
# the token to expire, then calls it again with the same headers.
import asyncio
import datetime
import httpx2
from mcp import ClientSession
from mcp.client.streamable_http import streamable_http_client
import agent # contributing/samples/integrations/bigquery_mcp/agent.py
URL = "https://bigquery.googleapis.com/mcp"
async def call_tool(label):
headers = dict(agent.bigquery_mcp_toolset.connection_params.headers or {})
client = httpx2.AsyncClient(headers=headers, timeout=60)
try:
async with streamable_http_client(URL, http_client=client) as (r, w):
async with ClientSession(r, w) as session:
await session.initialize()
await session.call_tool("list_dataset_ids", {"projectId": "PROJECT_ID"})
print(label, "OK")
except Exception as e:
print(label, "FAILED", type(e).__name__)
async def main():
await call_tool("before expiry:")
expiry = agent.credentials.expiry
while datetime.datetime.utcnow() < expiry + datetime.timedelta(seconds=90):
await asyncio.sleep(60)
await call_tool("after expiry: ")
asyncio.run(main())
How often has this issue occurred?:
- Always (100%)
- Dominant language
- Python
- Stars
- 21.6k
- Forks
- 4k
- Avg merge
- 13h 49m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 10
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