modelcontextprotocol / modelcontextprotocol/python-sdk
OAuth token refresh hits the wrong endpoint when the auth server lives under a path
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Description
Ran into this with a hosted MCP server whose authorization server isn't at the origin root — token endpoint is https://host/oauth2/api/v1/token, not https://host/token.
If a client starts up with a cached-but-expired access token (+ refresh token) and hasn't done discovery yet, async_auth_flow refreshes at the very top — before any 401/metadata discovery. So oauth_metadata is None and _refresh_token uses the fallback urljoin(get_authorization_base_url(server_url), "/token"), i.e. just {scheme}://{netloc}/token. That 404s, _handle_refresh_response clears the tokens, and the flow drops to full interactive auth — which a headless/gateway client can't do. So the server silently disconnects every time the access token expires (mine are 5 min, so… constantly).
Same path-stripping fallback is in _get_token_endpoint, _perform_authorization_code_grant (/authorize) and DCR (/register) — refresh is just the one that bites silently.
Repro (roughly):
- MCP server whose AS metadata puts
token_endpointunder a path, not{origin}/token - log in normally so tokens get cached
- let the access token expire (or clear the expiry), reconnect with a fresh provider
- watch the refresh POST go to
https://host/token→ 404 → "Token refresh failed" → tokens cleared → it tries to open a browser
Fix looks like: discover metadata before the eager refresh (or stop dropping the issuer path in the fallback). Happy to PR — have a branch that pulls the PRM/ASM discovery out of the 401 branch and runs it before the refresh.
(used some AI help digging into this)
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by tracing async_auth_flow and its eager refresh path into _refresh_token, then compare the fallback behavior in _get_token_endpoint, _perform_authorization_code_grant, and DCR. Reproduce the cached-expired-token scenario against an authorization server whose metadata endpoints include a path. Done means refresh uses the discovered token endpoint and does not clear valid tokens or fall back to interactive authentication.
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
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 48/100