The Model Context Protocol (MCP) has received its largest update since launch, changing its core from a stateful, server-session-based system to a stateless request-and-response model. This is intended to improve reliability and scalability, addressing a major obstacle to deploying MCP widely in large organisations.

The update also introduces multi-round-trip requests, header-based routing, cacheable results, stronger authorisation, a formal extensions framework and updated top-tier software development kits. MCP, originally created by Anthropic and now managed through the Linux Foundation’s Agentic AI Foundation, is supported by contributors including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Amazon; a new policy generally requires 12 months’ notice before deprecated features can be removed.