# MCP went stateless: What changed in the 2026-07-28 spec

DevFeed: [MCP went stateless: What changed in the 2026-07-28 spec](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/mcp-went-stateless-what-changed-in-the-2026-07-28-spec-31436.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://workos.com/blog/mcp-stateless-spec-2026-07-28>)

Author: WorkOS

Published: 2026-09-16T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [WorkOS Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/workos-blog.md>)

Topics: [Model Context Protocol](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/model-context-protocol.md>), [migration](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/migration.md>), [HTTP](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/http.md>), [servers](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/servers.md>), [client](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/client.md>)

Tags: [api](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/api.md>), [client](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/client.md>), [http](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/http.md>), [load-balancer](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/load-balancer.md>), [mcp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mcp.md>), [replacement](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/replacement.md>), [request](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/request.md>), [routing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/routing.md>), [server](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/server.md>), [servers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/servers.md>), [sessions](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/sessions.md>), [stateless](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/stateless.md>), [stream](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/stream.md>)

## AI overview

The 2026-07-28 MCP specification removes protocol-level sessions, the initialize handshake, and stream resumability, making the protocol behave more like an ordinary HTTP API. Most migrations are mechanical, but lost stream requests can cause reliability regressions or duplicated side effects when retried, so side-effecting tools need application-level idempotency keys. The elicitation change also requires architectural rework.

## Source excerpt

Sessions, the initialize handshake, and stream resumability are all gone. Here is what replaced them, and what breaks if you ignore it.