docs: Clarify server-client relationship #1631
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This PR clarifies the server-client relationship in MCP architecture documentation to resolve ambiguity about whether servers can handle multiple concurrent client connections. The changes explicitly state that while each client maintains a dedicated connection to a server, MCP servers may accept connections from multiple clients concurrently.
Motivation and Context
This change addresses GitHub issue #1402 which highlighted ambiguity in the MCP specification regarding the server-client relationship. The issue noted that:
The changes clarify that the 1:1 relationship refers to individual connections, not server capability, resolving implementation inconsistencies across different MCP SDKs.
How Has This Been Tested?
This is a documentation-only change that clarifies existing behavior rather than changing it. The changes have been reviewed for:
Breaking Changes
None. This is purely a documentation clarification that makes explicit what was already implicit in the protocol design. No code changes or configuration updates are required.
Types of changes
Checklist
Additional context
Files changed:
docs/docs/learn/architecture.mdx: Added clarifying note about server capability to accept multiple concurrent client connectionsdocs/specification/2024-11-05/basic/transports.mdx: Enhanced stdio transport description to clarify the one-to-one relationship between client and server instanceKey clarifications:
This resolves the implementation ambiguity that was causing different SDKs to interpret the server-client relationship differently, providing clear guidance for future MCP implementations.