modelcontextprotocol / modelcontextprotocol/python-sdk

Bug: anyio.Lock in async_auth_flow causes RuntimeError under concurrent OAuth MCP connections

Open
#2,847 5 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

auth bug needs confirmation P1
Dominant language
Python
Stars
24.3k
Forks
4k
Avg merge
1d 1h
Merged PRs (30d)
31

Description

Summary

Confirmed production occurrence of the bug described in #2644 (self-closed by the original reporter before they could follow through). Filing to provide a second validated repro and draw attention to the existing draft fix in #2660.

Environment

  • mcp==1.26.0
  • anyio==4.13.0
  • httpx==0.28.1
  • Python 3.11.14, macOS

What happens

When a gateway session starts and connects to multiple OAuth-authenticated MCP servers concurrently (Notion + TinyFish, both OAuth 2.1 PKCE), Notion fails intermittently:

ERROR asyncio: Task exception was never retrieved
RuntimeError: The current task is not holding this lock
  File ".../mcp/client/auth/oauth2.py", line 503, in async_auth_flow
  File ".../mcp/client/auth/oauth2.py", line 484, in async_auth_flow
    raise RuntimeError("The current task is not holding this lock")

WARNING tools.mcp_tool: MCP server 'notion' connection lost (attempt 1/5), reconnecting in 1s
WARNING tools.mcp_tool: Failed to connect to MCP server 'notion': CancelledError
INFO tools.mcp_tool: MCP: registered 114 tool(s) from 4 server(s) (1 failed)

Notion is affected more often than TinyFish because its OAuth token refreshes frequently (~every 15–60 min), consistently triggering the refresh yield path in async_auth_flow. TinyFish tokens expire less often and typically take the happy path (add header, yield once).

Root cause

OAuthContext.lock is anyio.Lock, which records task identity at acquire() and enforces same-task release(). async_auth_flow is an async generator that holds this lock across yield points. When httpx drives the generator from a different task during concurrent connections, anyio.Lock.release() throws.

Existing draft fix

PR #2660 addresses this correctly by narrowing lock scope so no lock is held across yields — GET SSE long-polls and token refresh yields both run outside any lock. It has full test coverage (100% on oauth2.py, 1177 passed) and no breaking changes, but has been sitting as a draft without maintainer review since May 22.

Workaround applied locally

Replacing anyio.Lock with asyncio.Lock in OAuthContext stops the error since asyncio.Lock does not enforce task identity on release. This is a bandaid — it loses trio portability — but unblocks asyncio deployments. Note: this is a mechanical fix and has not been load-tested to exhaustion; the intermittent nature of the bug means full verification requires sustained concurrent load.

Request

Could a maintainer review and merge PR #2660? The fix is principled and well-tested.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

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

Review PR #2660 alongside mcp/client/auth/oauth2.py, focusing on OAuthContext.lock and async_auth_flow. Run the existing OAuth tests and verify that the concurrent OAuth repro no longer fails when GET SSE and token-refresh paths cross yield points. Done means maintainer validation of the fix and review of the draft PR.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
api, authentication
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
20/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.