rmcp (official Rust MCP SDK): default Streamable HTTP client never follows spec-permitted redirects - redirecting MCP servers hard-fail with Err(UnexpectedServerResponse)

rmcp (official Rust MCP SDK): default Streamable HTTP client never follows spec-permitted redirects

Type: functional / MCP conformance
Component: crates/rmcp/src/transport/common/reqwest/streamable_http_client.rs — StreamableHttpClientTransport::default_http_client()

Summary

The official Rust SDK's default Streamable HTTP client is built with:

reqwest::Client::builder()
    .pool_max_idle_per_host(0)
    .redirect(reqwest::redirect::Policy::none())
    .build()

so it never follows HTTP redirects. The MCP spec explicitly permits servers to respond to transport requests with 301/302/307/308 (load balancing, canonical URL / trailing-slash normalization — see e.g. https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge#4441 for a real 307 on /mcp/). Against any redirecting server, every request degrades to:

Err(StreamableHttpError::UnexpectedServerResponse("HTTP 307: ..."))

and the client cannot talk to that server at all.

The truncation is deliberate (there is a unit test asserting no custom-header leak to a redirect target — sensible given reqwest's default policy would replay custom headers), but the consequence is that a spec-compliant redirecting MCP server is unsupported out of the box.

Repro (no build needed)

Point any rmcp StreamableHttpClientTransport (default client) at a server that answers POST /mcp with 307 Location: <same-origin>/v2/mcp. Every post_message returns UnexpectedServerResponse("HTTP 307: ...") instead of issuing a follow-up request to the new Location.

A self-contained crate reproducing this (and the goose-side contrast) is at https://github.com/trickyfalcon/cve-hunt/blob/main/poc-goose-rust/ — scenario B prints the Err(UnexpectedServerResponse("HTTP 307: ...")) directly.

Suggested direction

Follow redirects safely rather than never: only follow cross-host/cross-lo*...* leftovers to be trimmed — or, at minimum, make redirect policy configurable on StreamableHttpClientTransportConfig while keeping the default strict (no-follow) for backwards compatibility. An explicit redirect policy override (as an associated constructor option) would let security-conscious users opt in to same-origin redirect following.

Environment

• rmcp via modelcontextprotocol/rust-sdk (checked out 2026-08-22, rmcp crate 3.x)
• Reproducible with the PoC referenced above

Happy to be credited in the advisory/release notes as: Mo (@trickyfalcon, https://trickyfalcon.com)

Start in crates/rmcp/src/transport/common/reqwest/streamable_http_client.rs at StreamableHttpClientTransport::default_http_client(), then inspect the existing unit test covering custom-header leakage on redirects. Reproduce the 307 case from the issue and determine whether a safe redirect policy or configurable policy is intended. Done means redirecting MCP servers work without replaying custom headers unsafely, with the existing behavior and relevant tests updated accordingly.