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This page describes the network behavior of the hosted Context7 MCP server and REST API, so you can reason about timeouts, error handling, and client configuration without reading source code.

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Endpoints

Send MCP requests to the MCP endpoint with POST. The server does not maintain persistent HTTP sessions; legacy session GET and DELETE operations receive 405. Unknown routes return a JSON 404. OAuth discovery metadata is available at /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource (RFC 9728).

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Stateless HTTP serving

The hosted HTTP server serves each MCP request with a fresh server instance: there is no Mcp-Session-Id, no session store, and no Redis-backed state. The 2025-era legacy clients are answered through a stateless fallback. This means the server holds no per-session state between requests.

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API call timeout

The MCP server applies a 60-second timeout to each library search and context request it sends to the Context7 API. A stalled API request fails when that timeout expires. Your client or network proxy may apply a shorter timeout.

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SSE heartbeats

The HTTP server does not send SSE keepalive heartbeats. An exchange with no response can therefore reach a network proxy’s idle timeout. The MCP server also disables notification subscriptions for tool, prompt, and resource lists, which do not change while the server is running.

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Transport differences

  • stdio — authenticates with --api-key or CONTEXT7_API_KEY; --port is not allowed.
  • http — --api-key is not allowed; authenticate with an HTTP header instead (Authorization: Bearer ..., or the X-Context7-API-Key / X-API-Key variants). --port selects the listen port; the server tries successive ports when one is in use.

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Tool argument aliasing

On tools/call, the server rewrites hallucinated argument names to their canonical names before validation, so clients that echo tool-description phrasing still work: libraryName is only rewritten on query-docs calls, since it is the canonical argument for resolve-library-id. The schemas published via tools/list are unchanged — canonical names remain the documented required fields.

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Downtime and error handling

Temporary service or gateway failures can return 5xx HTTP responses. Retry with backoff and a limit on retry attempts. See API Guide error handling for API error codes and retry guidance.

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Query behavior

  • Use a separate query for each topic, unless the question is about how the topics interact.
  • Tool descriptions instruct agents to call each tool no more than 3 times per question. This is agent guidance, not a server-enforced per-question counter. Account and request rate limits apply separately.
  • The searchFilterApplied flag reports active source-access or library-filter settings for your teamspace. It does not indicate whether any results were excluded.
  • See Keeping Libraries Fresh for how documentation staleness and refresh scheduling work.