How MCP Uses Streamable HTTP for Real-Time AI Tool Interaction
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that connects AI models (clients) with external tools and data sources (servers). For local integrations, MCP can use a simple STDIO (standard input/output) transport, but for networked (remote) tools, it relies on HTTP-based communication.
Streamable HTTP is the modern HTTP transport introduced in MCP to handle streaming interactions between clients and servers. It was released in early 2025 as an evolution of the earlier HTTP+SSE approach, addressing its shortcomings. In essence, Streamable HTTP allows MCP to send and receive data over the web in a continuous, real-time stream — rather than just one request followed by one response. This new transport underpins remote MCP servers (sometimes called “remote” tools) and makes it easier for AI agents to interact with web services in a fluid, interactive way.
In this article, we will take a closer look at Streamable HTTP through a practical example. We will build a simple MCP server and client to analyze the communication between the two.
Read the entire article at The New Stack
Janakiram MSV is an analyst, advisor, and architect. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
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2dEnforcing statefulness through the MCP session ID and transport-level stream state (on the stateless http protocol )facilitates integration with IT/OT systems, where real-time streaming is essential for delivering accurate information and enabling the automation of OT maintenance tasks without human intervention. Thanks for sharing and interested to see how the session handling especially termination and handling of epheramal state evolves.
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3dThis is such an underrated component! Thanks for putting an insightful read on it Janakiram MSV!