MCPNews

The Model Context Protocol ecosystem, verified

Current spec 2026-07-28

MCP 2025-03-26

SUPERSEDED Confidence: High (1.00)

MCP 2025-03-26 is a superseded revision of the Model Context Protocol specification, released 2025-03-26.

What is MCP specification revision 2025-03-26?

MCP 2025-03-26 is a superseded revision of the Model Context Protocol specification, released 2025-03-26.

Added the OAuth 2.1 authorization framework, replaced the original HTTP+SSE transport with Streamable HTTP, and added JSON-RPC batching and tool annotations.

What changed in MCP 2025-03-26?

  • Comprehensive authorization framework based on OAuth 2.1
  • Streamable HTTP transport replaces the previous HTTP+SSE transport
  • JSON-RPC batching support
  • Tool annotations describing tool behavior (read-only, destructive)
  • Audio content type joins text and image

MCP 2025-03-26 introduced the Streamable HTTP transport that remote MCP servers still use today, replacing the original HTTP+SSE transport, and added the protocol's first comprehensive authorization framework, based on OAuth 2.1. It also added JSON-RPC batching (removed again in the following revision) and tool annotations for describing tool behavior.

How was this verified, and what are the sources?

Verified · method: spec-changelog · confidence 1.00 (High).

  1. Official 2025-03-26 changelog - lists OAuth 2.1 authorization, Streamable HTTP replacing HTTP+SSE, JSON-RPC batching, and tool annotations as the major changes - accessed