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feat(mcp): expose agents as MCP resource with change notifications#1856

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onematchfox:feat-mcp-agents-resource
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feat(mcp): expose agents as MCP resource with change notifications#1856
onematchfox wants to merge 3 commits into
kagent-dev:mainfrom
onematchfox:feat-mcp-agents-resource

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Adds a kagent://agents MCP resource that lists agents as JSON. Clients can read the resource directly or subscribe to receive notifications when the agent list changes. I've left the existing list_agents tool in place for now to not break existing consumers although this can potentially be removed prior to the next breaking version?

Notes:

onematchfox and others added 2 commits May 12, 2026 16:49
… handlers

The Go MCP SDK detaches the HTTP request context before dispatching to tool handlers. From the [SDK source](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/blob/v1.5.0/mcp/streamable.go#L485-L487):

>  // Pass req.Context() here, to allow middleware to add context values.
>  // The context is detached in the jsonrpc2 library when handling the
>  // long-running stream.

This means the auth session placed by `AuthnMiddleware` is not visible via `auth.AuthSessionFrom(ctx)` in tool handlers.

The SDK does preserve the original HTTP headers in [RequestExtra.Header](https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk/blob/v1.5.0/mcp/streamable.go#L1155-L1158) though.

Re-authenticate from those headers at the top of handleInvokeAgent so the A2A client's outbound request to the agent carries the user's JWT.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Brian Fox <878612+onematchfox@users.noreply.github.com>
Replace the HTTP round-trip through the controller's own A2A listener with direct invocation via a new `AgentClientRegistry`. The registry is owned by `A2ARegistrar`, which already maintains an `A2AClient` per agent for its HTTP mux — the registry gives the MCP handler access to those same clients without an extra network hop.

The old approach routed through the controller's public A2A endpoint, meaning requests could traverse the external network (and any ingress or load-balancer in front of it) unnecessarily. The new path stays in-process.

The old handler also cached its own `A2AClient` per agent in a `sync.Map` with no eviction, so clients for deleted agents would remain indefinitely. The registry is kept consistent by the registrar's add/update/delete lifecycle, eliminating that staleness.

`A2ARegistrar.upsertAgentHandler` writes to both the HTTP mux (for inbound /api/a2a/<ns>/<name>/ routing) and the registry (for direct invocation). The registry is exposed via `ClientRegistry()` and passed to `NewMCPHandler` in app.go.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Brian Fox <878612+onematchfox@users.noreply.github.com>
Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings May 12, 2026 14:58
@onematchfox onematchfox changed the title feat(mcp): expose kagent agents as MCP resource with change notifications feat(mcp): expose agents as MCP resource with change notifications May 12, 2026
Adds a `kagent://agents` [MCP resource](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-06-18/server/resources) that lists  agents as JSON. Clients can read the resource directly or subscribe to receive notifications when the agent list changes. I've left the existing `list_agents` tool in place for now to not break existing consumers although this can potentially be removed prior to the next breaking version?

- Extract listReadyAgents helper shared by tool and resource handlers
- Register kagent://agents resource with subscribe/unsubscribe support
- Add NotifyAgentsChanged on MCPHandler, called via a new callback on
  A2ARegistrar whenever agents are added, updated, or removed
- Wire the callback in app.go

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Brian Fox <878612+onematchfox@users.noreply.github.com>
@onematchfox onematchfox force-pushed the feat-mcp-agents-resource branch from 508913d to e231a30 Compare May 12, 2026 14:58
@github-actions github-actions Bot added enhancement New feature or request and removed enhancement New feature or request labels May 12, 2026
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Pull request overview

Adds an MCP “agents” resource (kagent://agents) backed by the controller’s Kubernetes agent listing, plus change notifications so MCP clients can subscribe and refresh when the agent list changes. It also refactors MCP agent invocation to use in-process A2A clients via a new registry maintained by the A2A registrar (avoiding a loopback HTTP hop).

Changes:

  • Introduce kagent://agents MCP resource (JSON) and resources/updated notifications via NotifyAgentsChanged.
  • Refactor invoke_agent to call agents via AgentClientRegistry populated by A2ARegistrar.
  • Add unit tests validating auth propagation for invoke_agent when MCP request context is detached.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file
File Description
go/core/pkg/app/app.go Wires A2ARegistrar into MCP handler via ClientRegistry() and registers agent-change callback for notifications.
go/core/internal/mcp/mcp_handler.go Adds MCP resource + notifications; refactors list logic; switches invocation to registry-based A2A clients and restores auth session from RequestExtra.
go/core/internal/mcp/mcp_handler_test.go New tests for recovering auth from MCP RequestExtra and propagating upstream auth to A2A calls.
go/core/internal/a2a/agent_client_registry.go Adds a concurrency-safe registry for mapping agent refs to A2A clients and invoking them directly.
go/core/internal/a2a/a2a_registrar.go Populates registry during agent lifecycle and triggers a callback on agent add/update/delete.
Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

go/core/internal/mcp/mcp_handler.go:236

  • Comment says the agent reference can be "namespace/name or just name", but the implementation rejects values without a slash and returns an error. Either support the name-only form (e.g., defaulting the namespace) or update the comment/jsonschema to match the actual required format.
	// Parse agent reference (namespace/name or just name)
	agentNS, agentName, ok := strings.Cut(input.Agent, "/")
	if !ok {
		return &mcpsdk.CallToolResult{
			Content: []mcpsdk.Content{
				&mcpsdk.TextContent{Text: "agent must be in format 'namespace/name'"},

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Comment on lines 131 to +136
if oldAgent.GetGeneration() != newAgent.GetGeneration() || !sameAgentSpec(oldAgent, newAgent) {
if err := a.upsertAgentHandler(ctx, newAgent, log); err != nil {
log.Error(err, "failed to upsert A2A handler", "agent", common.GetObjectRef(newAgent))
return
}
a.notifyAgentChange(ctx)
c, ok := r.clients[key]
r.mu.RUnlock()
if !ok {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("agent %s/%s not found or not ready", namespace, name)
Comment on lines +95 to +104
// Add agents resource for clients that pre-populate context
server.AddResource(
&mcpsdk.Resource{
URI: "kagent://agents",
Name: "agents",
Description: "List of invokable kagent agents (accepted + deploymentReady)",
MIMEType: "application/json",
},
handler.readAgentsResource,
)
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