modelcontextprotocol / modelcontextprotocol/csharp-sdk

Option to support declarative tool registration activated by version (e.g. "beta")

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enhancement P3 ready for work
Dominant language
C#
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Currently, there is no clear way to adding new endpoints under test and keeping those from the broader user audience.

This makes incremental rollouts of new tools challenging because it is not possible to easily have some users opt in progressively to receive new features for stability testing.

Describe the solution you'd like

  • When tools are registered, allow it to be registered with a version
  • Spitballing:
    • Version specification: accept route match (*/vnext/*) or header (x-mcp-version: vnext)
    • Example: [McpServerTool(Name = "my_tool", VersionHeader = "x-mcp-version", VersionMatch = "vnext")]
  • This sets up the filter in the middleware automatically and checks incoming headers against the toolset metadata, automatically removing ones that target specific versions; effectively, it says client must transmit the header to see this tool.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Current workaround is to directly manipulate the ToolCollection dynamically:

server.WithListToolsHandler(
    async (context, cancellationToken) =>
    {
        // Resolve HttpContext via DI
        var httpContext = context
            .Services?.GetRequiredService<IHttpContextAccessor>()
            .HttpContext;

        // Check for the specific header
        bool betaEnabled =
            httpContext?.Request.Headers.ContainsKey("x-biblio-enable-beta") ?? false;

        if (!betaEnabled)
        {
            var betaTools =
                context.Server?.ServerOptions?.ToolCollection?.Where(tool =>
                    tool.ProtocolTool.Title?.Contains("(BETA)") ?? false
                )
                ?? [];

            foreach (var tool in betaTools.ToList())
            {
                // 👇 Active removal
                context?.Server?.ServerOptions?.ToolCollection?.Remove(tool);
            }
        }

        return new ListToolsResult
        {
            Tools = [], // Empty; these are additional tools.
        };
    }
);

Additional context

Similar to these issues:

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing declarative tool registration, the tool metadata represented by McpServerTool, and the middleware or list-tools path that currently exposes ToolCollection. Define how route or header version matching should be represented and filtered, then verify that versioned tools remain hidden unless the matching client request is present without breaking normal tool discovery.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
csharp
Domain
api, backend-api-design
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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