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Version-Based Tool Registration for MCP Server #1216

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Description

@Christian-Steusloff

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
When building MCP servers in .NET, especially HTTP-based servers with versioned endpoints, there is currently no first-class support for tool versioning and selective tool registration.
All tools are typically registered globally (e.g. via WithTools() or assembly-wide scanning), which makes it difficult to:

  • Expose multiple API versions (/v1, /v2, …) in parallel
  • Maintain backward compatibility while evolving tools
  • Avoid duplicating MCP server registrations per version
  • Keep tool discovery explicit and predictable in larger codebases

This becomes especially painful in real-world services where:

  • Tools are organized by namespace (e.g. MyNamespace.Mcp.v1, MyNamespace.Mcp.v2)
  • Different MCP endpoints should only expose a subset of tools
  • Versioning logic must be reimplemented manually outside the SDK

Describe the solution you'd like
I propose adding official support for namespace- and version-based tool registration, enabling clean MCP API versioning.

  1. Namespace-based tool discovery helper
    A built-in extension similar to the following:
public static class McpVersioningExtensions
{
    public static IMcpServerBuilder WithToolsFromNamespaces(
        this IMcpServerBuilder builder,
        Assembly assembly,
        params string[] namespaceNames)
    {
        IEnumerable<Type> toolTypes =
            from t in assembly.GetTypes()
            where t.GetCustomAttribute<McpServerToolTypeAttribute>() is not null
            where t.Namespace != null
               && namespaceNames.Any(ns =>
                   t.Namespace.StartsWith(ns, StringComparison.Ordinal))
            select t;

        return builder.WithTools(toolTypes);
    }
}

Usage:

builder.Services.AddMcpServer(options =>
{
    options.ServerInfo.Version = "1.0.0";
})
.WithHttpTransport()
.WithToolsFromNamespaces(
    typeof(Program).Assembly,
    "MyNamespace.Mcp.v1");

This allows:

  • Clear separation of tools by namespace
  • Explicit control over which tools belong to which API version
  • No reflection boilerplate in application code
  1. Version-aware endpoint mapping
    Combine tool versioning with HTTP endpoint constraints:
app.MapMcp("/v1", options =>
{
    options.RequiredServerVersion = "1.0.0";
});

app.MapMcp("/v2", options =>
{
    options.RequiredServerVersion = "2.0.0";
});

This enables:

  • Parallel MCP versions in the same service
  • Clean routing and contract enforcement
  • Safe evolution of tools without breaking clients

Describe alternatives you've considered

  • Multiple MCP servers per version
    → Leads to duplicated configuration, duplicated transports, and higher maintenance cost.
  • Manual reflection and filtering outside the SDK
    → Works, but reimplements logic that many users will need and reduces consistency across projects.
  • Tool-level version attributes only
    → Still requires custom registration logic and does not integrate naturally with HTTP endpoint versioning.

Additional context
This feature would be particularly valuable for:

  • Enterprise services with long-lived clients
  • Public MCP endpoints with semantic versioning
  • Teams migrating from REST/gRPC APIs to MCP while preserving version contracts

Providing an official abstraction for namespace- or version-based tool registration would:

  • Reduce boilerplate
  • Encourage best practices
  • Make the SDK significantly more production-ready for real-world API versioning scenarios

Activity

  1. added
    P3Nice to haves, rare edge cases
    ready for workHas enough information to start
    on Jul 19, 2026
  2. jeffhandley commented on Jul 19, 2026

    @jeffhandley
    Contributor

    Related: #1557 proposes a complementary runtime / header-based mechanism (gate tools per request via x-mcp-version), whereas this issue covers static, namespace/endpoint-based versioning (/v1, /v2). Cross-linking so the two are designed together rather than in isolation.

  3. added this to the 2.x milestone on Jul 27, 2026
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