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Managing requests
Last update:
May 18, 2026
Every interaction with your system is a request. When MCP is involved, these requests typically translate into tool calls, resource reads, or prompt retrievals.
Overview
At a high level, every interaction with your system is a request:
- A user action (clicking a button, submitting a form)
- An agent or automation making an API call
- A batch process triggering a workflow
When MCP is involved, these requests typically translate into:
- MCP tool calls (actions, lookups, transformations)
- MCP resource reads (context, logs, documents)
- MCP prompt retrievals (task-specific instructions)
As a user or integrator, you should think about request management along three dimensions:
- Lifecycle – how requests are created, processed, and completed
- Safety – what each request is allowed to do and see
- Performance – how many requests you can handle and how quickly
1.1. Request lifecycle
A typical request lifecycle in an MCP-aware system looks like this:
Initiation
- A user asks an agent to “summarize last week’s errors” or “create a report”.
- A service triggers an MCP tool to perform some work.
Planning
- The agent or client decides which MCP server and which tool (or prompt/resource) to use.
- It constructs the request payload, including any parameters and context.
Execution
- The request is sent over the chosen transport (HTTP/SSE, STDIO, local).
- The MCP server validates the input, performs the action or read, and builds a response.
Completion
- The client receives either a successful result or an error.
- Any side effects (for example, created records or updated documents) are committed.
- The result is surfaced to the user or passed to the next step in a workflow.
When you “manage requests”, you are deciding:
- Which requests to allow
- How they are authenticated and authorized
- How many can run concurrently
- How long they can run before timing out
- How errors and partial failures are handled
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