fix(client): surface streamable HTTP 401 as JSON-RPC error

src/mcp/client/streamable_http.py

@@ -296,6 +296,8 @@ async def _handle_post_request(self, ctx: RequestContext) -> None:
                             error_data = ErrorData(code=METHOD_NOT_FOUND, message="Not Found")
                         else:
                             error_data = ErrorData(code=INVALID_REQUEST, message="Session terminated")
+                    elif response.status_code == 401:
+                        error_data = ErrorData(code=INTERNAL_ERROR, message="Unauthorized")
                     else:
                         error_data = ErrorData(code=INTERNAL_ERROR, message="Server returned an error response")
                     session_message = SessionMessage(JSONRPCError(jsonrpc="2.0", id=message.id, error=error_data))

tests/client/test_streamable_http.py

@@ -13,7 +13,14 @@
 import httpx
 import pytest
 from inline_snapshot import snapshot
-from mcp_types import METHOD_NOT_FOUND, JSONRPCError, JSONRPCNotification, JSONRPCRequest, JSONRPCResponse
+from mcp_types import (
+    INTERNAL_ERROR,
+    METHOD_NOT_FOUND,
+    JSONRPCError,
+    JSONRPCNotification,
+    JSONRPCRequest,
+    JSONRPCResponse,
+)
 
 from mcp.client.streamable_http import streamable_http_client
 from mcp.shared.inbound import MCP_PROTOCOL_VERSION_HEADER, encode_header_value
@@ -103,6 +110,32 @@ def handler(request: httpx.Request) -> httpx.Response:
     assert reply.message.error.code == METHOD_NOT_FOUND
 
 
+@pytest.mark.anyio
+async def test_bare_401_request_maps_to_unauthorized_jsonrpc_error() -> None:
+    """A bare HTTP 401 should reach the caller as a correlated JSON-RPC error.
+
+    Authorization failures can be operation-specific. The client transport must
+    leave room for the agent/session layer to handle the denial instead of
+    collapsing it into an indistinguishable transport failure.
+    """
+
+    def handler(request: httpx.Request) -> httpx.Response:
+        return httpx.Response(401)
+
+    with anyio.fail_after(5):
+        async with (
+            httpx.AsyncClient(transport=httpx.MockTransport(handler)) as http,
+            streamable_http_client("http://test/mcp", http_client=http) as (read, write),
+        ):
+            await write.send(SessionMessage(JSONRPCRequest(jsonrpc="2.0", id=1, method="tools/call", params={})))
+            reply = await read.receive()
+    assert isinstance(reply, SessionMessage)
+    assert isinstance(reply.message, JSONRPCError)
+    assert reply.message.id == 1
+    assert reply.message.error.code == INTERNAL_ERROR
+    assert reply.message.error.message == "Unauthorized"
+
+
 @pytest.mark.anyio
 async def test_initialize_post_clears_cached_pv_header_and_unstamped_posts_read_it() -> None:
     """``initialize`` discards the cached protocol-version header; every other POST reads it.