feat: add request cancellation and in-flight request tracking

This commit adds support for request cancellation and tracking of
in-flight requests in the MCP protocol implementation. The key
architectural changes are:

1. Request Lifecycle Management:
   - Added _in_flight dictionary to BaseSession to track active requests
   - Requests are tracked from receipt until completion/cancellation
   - Added proper cleanup via on_complete callback

2. Cancellation Support:
   - Added CancelledNotification handling in _receive_loop
   - Implemented cancel() method in RequestResponder
   - Uses anyio.CancelScope for robust cancellation
   - Sends error response on cancellation

3. Request Context:
   - Added request_ctx ContextVar for request context
   - Ensures proper cleanup after request handling
   - Maintains request state throughout lifecycle

4. Error Handling:
   - Improved error propagation for cancelled requests
   - Added proper cleanup of cancelled requests
   - Maintains consistency of in-flight tracking

This change enables clients to cancel long-running requests and
servers to properly clean up resources when requests are cancelled.

Github-Issue:#88

src/mcp/server/lowlevel/server.py

@@ -453,10 +453,15 @@ class Server:
                     logger.debug(f"Received message: {message}")
 
                     match message:
-                        case RequestResponder(request=types.ClientRequest(root=req)):
+                        case (
-                            await self._handle_request(
+                            RequestResponder(
-                                message, req, session, raise_exceptions
+                                request=types.ClientRequest(root=req)
-                            )
+                            ) as responder
+                        ):
+                            with responder:
+                                await self._handle_request(
+                                    message, req, session, raise_exceptions
+                                )
                         case types.ClientNotification(root=notify):
                             await self._handle_notification(notify)
 

src/mcp/shared/session.py

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 from contextlib import AbstractAsyncContextManager
 from datetime import timedelta
-from typing import Generic, TypeVar
+from typing import Any, Callable, Generic, TypeVar
 
 import anyio
 import anyio.lowlevel
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ from pydantic import BaseModel
 
 from mcp.shared.exceptions import McpError
 from mcp.types import (
+    CancelledNotification,
     ClientNotification,
     ClientRequest,
     ClientResult,
@@ -44,21 +45,55 @@ class RequestResponder(Generic[ReceiveRequestT, SendResultT]):
         request_meta: RequestParams.Meta | None,
         request: ReceiveRequestT,
         session: "BaseSession",
+        on_complete: Callable[["RequestResponder[ReceiveRequestT, SendResultT]"], Any],
     ) -> None:
         self.request_id = request_id
         self.request_meta = request_meta
         self.request = request
         self._session = session
-        self._responded = False
+        self._completed = False
+        self._cancel_scope = anyio.CancelScope()
+        self._on_complete = on_complete
+
+    def __enter__(self) -> "RequestResponder[ReceiveRequestT, SendResultT]":
+        self._cancel_scope.__enter__()
+        return self
+
+    def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_val, exc_tb) -> None:
+        try:
+            if self._completed:
+                self._on_complete(self)
+        finally:
+            self._cancel_scope.__exit__(exc_type, exc_val, exc_tb)
 
     async def respond(self, response: SendResultT | ErrorData) -> None:
-        assert not self._responded, "Request already responded to"
+        assert not self._completed, "Request already responded to"
-        self._responded = True
 
+        if not self.cancelled:
+            self._completed = True
+
+            await self._session._send_response(
+                request_id=self.request_id, response=response
+            )
+
+    async def cancel(self) -> None:
+        """Cancel this request and mark it as completed."""
+        self._cancel_scope.cancel()
+        self._completed = True  # Mark as completed so it's removed from in_flight
+        # Send an error response to indicate cancellation
         await self._session._send_response(
-            request_id=self.request_id, response=response
+            request_id=self.request_id,
+            response=ErrorData(code=0, message="Request cancelled", data=None),
         )
 
+    @property
+    def in_flight(self) -> bool:
+        return not self._completed and not self.cancelled
+
+    @property
+    def cancelled(self) -> bool:
+        return self._cancel_scope is not None and self._cancel_scope.cancel_called
+
 
 class BaseSession(
     AbstractAsyncContextManager,
@@ -82,6 +117,7 @@ class BaseSession(
         RequestId, MemoryObjectSendStream[JSONRPCResponse | JSONRPCError]
     ]
     _request_id: int
+    _in_flight: dict[RequestId, RequestResponder[ReceiveRequestT, SendResultT]]
 
     def __init__(
         self,
@@ -99,6 +135,7 @@ class BaseSession(
         self._receive_request_type = receive_request_type
         self._receive_notification_type = receive_notification_type
         self._read_timeout_seconds = read_timeout_seconds
+        self._in_flight = {}
 
         self._incoming_message_stream_writer, self._incoming_message_stream_reader = (
             anyio.create_memory_object_stream[
@@ -219,6 +256,7 @@ class BaseSession(
                             by_alias=True, mode="json", exclude_none=True
                         )
                     )
+
                     responder = RequestResponder(
                         request_id=message.root.id,
                         request_meta=validated_request.root.params.meta
@@ -226,20 +264,28 @@ class BaseSession(
                         else None,
                         request=validated_request,
                         session=self,
+                        on_complete=lambda r: self._in_flight.pop(r.request_id, None),
                     )
 
+                    self._in_flight[responder.request_id] = responder
                     await self._received_request(responder)
-                    if not responder._responded:
+                    if not responder._completed:
                         await self._incoming_message_stream_writer.send(responder)
+
                 elif isinstance(message.root, JSONRPCNotification):
                     notification = self._receive_notification_type.model_validate(
                         message.root.model_dump(
                             by_alias=True, mode="json", exclude_none=True
                         )
                     )
-
+                    # Handle cancellation notifications
-                    await self._received_notification(notification)
+                    if isinstance(notification.root, CancelledNotification):
-                    await self._incoming_message_stream_writer.send(notification)
+                        cancelled_id = notification.root.params.requestId
+                        if cancelled_id in self._in_flight:
+                            await self._in_flight[cancelled_id].cancel()
+                    else:
+                        await self._received_notification(notification)
+                        await self._incoming_message_stream_writer.send(notification)
                 else:  # Response or error
                     stream = self._response_streams.pop(message.root.id, None)
                     if stream:

tests/shared/test_session.py

@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+from typing import AsyncGenerator
+
+import anyio
+import pytest
+
+import mcp.types as types
+from mcp.client.session import ClientSession
+from mcp.server.lowlevel.server import Server
+from mcp.shared.exceptions import McpError
+from mcp.shared.memory import create_connected_server_and_client_session
+from mcp.types import (
+    CancelledNotification,
+    CancelledNotificationParams,
+    ClientNotification,
+    ClientRequest,
+    EmptyResult,
+)
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def mcp_server() -> Server:
+    return Server(name="test server")
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+async def client_connected_to_server(
+    mcp_server: Server,
+) -> AsyncGenerator[ClientSession, None]:
+    async with create_connected_server_and_client_session(mcp_server) as client_session:
+        yield client_session
+
+
+@pytest.mark.anyio
+async def test_in_flight_requests_cleared_after_completion(
+    client_connected_to_server: ClientSession,
+):
+    """Verify that _in_flight is empty after all requests complete."""
+    # Send a request and wait for response
+    response = await client_connected_to_server.send_ping()
+    assert isinstance(response, EmptyResult)
+
+    # Verify _in_flight is empty
+    assert len(client_connected_to_server._in_flight) == 0
+
+
+@pytest.mark.anyio
+async def test_request_cancellation():
+    """Test that requests can be cancelled while in-flight."""
+    # The tool is already registered in the fixture
+
+    ev_tool_called = anyio.Event()
+    ev_cancelled = anyio.Event()
+    request_id = None
+
+    # Start the request in a separate task so we can cancel it
+    def make_server() -> Server:
+        server = Server(name="TestSessionServer")
+
+        # Register the tool handler
+        @server.call_tool()
+        async def handle_call_tool(name: str, arguments: dict | None) -> list:
+            nonlocal request_id, ev_tool_called
+            if name == "slow_tool":
+                request_id = server.request_context.request_id
+                ev_tool_called.set()
+                await anyio.sleep(10)  # Long enough to ensure we can cancel
+                return []
+            raise ValueError(f"Unknown tool: {name}")
+
+        # Register the tool so it shows up in list_tools
+        @server.list_tools()
+        async def handle_list_tools() -> list[types.Tool]:
+            return [
+                types.Tool(
+                    name="slow_tool",
+                    description="A slow tool that takes 10 seconds to complete",
+                    inputSchema={},
+                )
+            ]
+
+        return server
+
+    async def make_request(client_session):
+        nonlocal ev_cancelled
+        try:
+            await client_session.send_request(
+                ClientRequest(
+                    types.CallToolRequest(
+                        method="tools/call",
+                        params=types.CallToolRequestParams(
+                            name="slow_tool", arguments={}
+                        ),
+                    )
+                ),
+                types.CallToolResult,
+            )
+            pytest.fail("Request should have been cancelled")
+        except McpError as e:
+            # Expected - request was cancelled
+            assert "Request cancelled" in str(e)
+            ev_cancelled.set()
+
+    async with create_connected_server_and_client_session(
+        make_server()
+    ) as client_session:
+        async with anyio.create_task_group() as tg:
+            tg.start_soon(make_request, client_session)
+
+            # Wait for the request to be in-flight
+            with anyio.fail_after(1):  # Timeout after 1 second
+                await ev_tool_called.wait()
+
+            # Send cancellation notification
+            assert request_id is not None
+            await client_session.send_notification(
+                ClientNotification(
+                    CancelledNotification(
+                        method="notifications/cancelled",
+                        params=CancelledNotificationParams(requestId=request_id),
+                    )
+                )
+            )
+
+            # Give cancellation time to process
+            with anyio.fail_after(1):
+                await ev_cancelled.wait()