SSEServerTransport doesn't seem to close properly

Describe the bug
While reviewing the source code, I noticed that the close method is never actually called, which means res.end is never triggered:
https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/typescript-sdk/blob/main/src/server/sse.ts

In multiple places, it seems like onclose is called directly when close should be used instead, to ensure proper cleanup.

To Reproduce
I created a minimal reproduction here:
https://github.com/nichtsam/transport-issue

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

npm run start
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector
connect to http://localhost:3001/sse
disconnect

Expected behavior
res.end should be called via the close method to cleanly terminate the SSE connection.

Would you mind please adding some of the symptoms you noticed because of this issue? I'm trying to debug some issues on an MCP server and suspect it could be related to something like this. Thanks!

Would you mind please adding some of the symptoms you noticed because of this issue? I'm trying to debug some issues on an MCP server and suspect it could be related to something like this. Thanks!

The core issue is that these responses never properly close, so they occupy memory until timeout. This can build up and create memory pressure. Not sure if there's any obvious symptoms.

Running into this as well.

import { Client } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/index.js";
import { SSEClientTransport } from "@modelcontextprotocol/sdk/client/sse.js";

const client = new Client(
  {
    name: "mcp-typescript-client",
    version: "1.0.0",
  },
  {
    capabilities: {},
  }
);

const transport = new SSEClientTransport(
  new URL(
    ".../sse"
  )
);

async function main() {
   await client.connect(transport);

   // ... do stuff with client

  // these don't seem to do anything - the connection stays open indefinitely
  await client.transport?.close();
  await client.close();
}

main();

Running into this as well.

It could be two things, one is that the transport itself doesn't close properly,
the other one is that onclose gets overwritten by protocol class.

You're using the client part so I'm not sure if it's the same, but I'm guessing it is.

@nichtsam

Hi @nichtsam thanks for reporting - given the age of this I'm wondering whether this is still an issue for you?

Hi @nichtsam thanks for reporting - given the age of this I'm wondering whether this is still an issue for you?

Hey, I'm not actively developing mcps at the moment, but I quickly revisited the code and it looks like the issue still exists. Essentially, the close method is never actually called by the class, which can lead to confusing behavior that might take hours to track down.

I believe this might the cause of hangs I am experiencing when running an MCP client on Cloudflare Workers that have a strict 6 open outbound connections cloudflare/agents#538

@kamal

Thanks @kamal looking into this :)

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SSEServerTransport doesn't seem to close properly #321

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SSEServerTransport doesn't seem to close properly #321

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reustle commented on Apr 19, 2025

nichtsam commented on Apr 19, 2025

TranquilMarmot commented on May 14, 2025

nichtsam commented on May 14, 2025

felixweinberger commented on Oct 6, 2025

nichtsam commented on Oct 6, 2025

kamal commented on Oct 7, 2025

mattzcarey commented on Oct 8, 2025

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