Last updated: 2025-10-31
The ideas presented here are not commitments—we may solve these challenges differently than described, or some may not materialize at all. This is also not an exhaustive list; we may incorporate work that isn’t mentioned here.
Priority Areas for the Next Release
Asynchronous Operations
Currently, MCP is built around mostly synchronous operations. We’re adding async support to allow servers to kick off long-running tasks while clients can check back later for results. This will enable operations that take minutes or hours without blocking. Follow the progress in SEP-1686.Statelessness and Scalability
As organizations deploy MCP servers at enterprise scale, we’re addressing challenges around horizontal scaling. While Streamable HTTP provides some stateless support, we’re smoothing out rough edges around server startup and session handling to make it easier to run MCP servers in production. The current focus point for this effort is SEP-1442.Server Identity
We’re enabling servers to advertise themselves through.well-known URLs—an established standard for providing metadata. This will allow clients to discover what a server can do without having to connect to it first, making discovery much more intuitive and enabling systems like our registry to automatically catalog capabilities. We are working closely across multiple projects in the industry to rely on a common standard on agent cards.
Official Extensions
As MCP has grown, valuable patterns have emerged for specific industries and use cases. Rather than leaving everyone to reinvent the wheel, we’re officially recognizing and documenting the most popular protocol extensions. This curated collection will give developers building for specialized domains like healthcare, finance, or education a solid starting point.SDK Support Standardization
We’re introducing a clear tiering system for SDKs based on factors like specification compliance speed, maintenance responsiveness, and feature completeness. This will help developers understand exactly what level of support they’re getting before committing to a dependency.MCP Registry General Availability
The MCP Registry launched in preview in September 2025 and is progressing toward general availability. We’re stabilizing the v0.1 API through real-world integrations and community feedback, with plans to transition from preview to a production-ready service. This will provide developers with a reliable, community-driven platform for discovering and sharing MCP servers.Validation
To foster a robust developer ecosystem, we plan to invest in:- Reference Client Implementations: demonstrating protocol features with high-quality AI applications
- Reference Server Implementation: showcasing authentication patterns and remote deployment best practices
- Compliance Test Suites: automated verification that clients, servers, and SDKs properly implement the specification