Missing Token Refresh Mechanism for MCP Server Integrations

[fokkedekker]

Bug Description This isn't technically a bug but rather a missing feature. Currently there is no way for Claude Code to refresh tokens for MCP servers. This means that we either have to have a very long lived token or manually refresh it.

Our platform deeply integrates with Claude Code and our MCP is effecively a state machine that has claude call various MCP calls to build and deploy applications. This building process can take 30-60 minutes.

The MCP spec does seem to call for a refresh token ability but I don't think Claude Code implements it. Happy to provide more feedback if you want you can reach me at [email protected]

Environment Info

• Platform: darwin
• Terminal: WarpTerminal
• Version: 1.0.77
• Feedback ID: 03061b16-5aa1-46a6-9c91-4125d664ee73

Errors

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[harrymower]

I am seeing this same issue. I can get Claude Code to authenticate our MCP sever via Oauth (using WorkOS as the provider) but when the token expires, it does not refresh the token. We send a 401 with the /.well-known/oath-protected-resource header. Claude Code calls that end point but never goes to the /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server to get the authentication endpoint.

[plappag]

Can someone actually comment if this is even working on WebUI? I currently have no way to know if we can refresh, like we never see any attempts and it's super frustrating. The idea may be to just allow for a long lived JWT but without the refresh mechanism it's kind of pointless

[plappag]

Also btw to acknowledge OP: You can just use API key if you need to use it without any Oauth system.

[github-actions[bot]]

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[agusdmb]

i have built an MCP server using fastmcp and i am having this problem too

[plappag]

Set JWT to 30 days.. don't do refresh

[skishtapuram-loyaltymethods]

Im seeing the same issue. @plappag - I dont have option to tweak the JWT

[mauricekleine]

Facing the same issue, our custom MCP is protected by Microsoft OAuth, which issues access tokens that expire in 60-90 minutes. Manual re-auth is super tedious. Refresh tokens are issued but not consumed by Claude Code

[pjcdawkins]

Set JWT to 30 days.. don't do refresh

Well, it's an option.

I notice Linear's MCP server chose that workaround too: their access tokens expire in 7 days by default.

But I don't think it's the right solution, and neither do the MCP protocol authors, who say:

Authorization servers SHOULD issue short-lived access tokens to reduce the impact of leaked tokens.

The same page says MCP's authorization is based on OAuth 2.1, which says:

Authorization servers SHOULD issue short-lived bearer tokens, particularly when issuing tokens to clients that run within a web browser or other environments where information leakage may occur. Using short-lived bearer tokens can reduce the impact of them being leaked.

Somehow, Claude Code gives me an uninterrupted experience with the Linear MCP: I haven't had to reauthenticate or reauthorize in months. I don't think it can be dynamically registering a new client every time.

So I feel Claude Code must already implement refresh, but it's not working at shorter lifetimes?

Implementing or fixing refresh would make for a much smoother MCP experience.