Add env-var support and native HTTP transport for External MCP Servers

External MCP Servers previously only spoke stdio (spawn a local
command + args). Adds:
- env vars for stdio servers (merged into the subprocess environment,
  not embedded in the args string), with a masked key-value editor
- a native Streamable HTTP transport (URL + Bearer token + custom
  headers), so HTTP-based MCP servers like Obsidian's Local REST API
  plugin connect directly without needing npx/Node.js as a bridge

Introduces an MCPTransport abstraction (stdio/HTTP) so ExternalMCPClient
stays transport-agnostic — mirrors how Provider.swift already abstracts
AI backends in this codebase.

Also fixes a real crash found via live testing against Obsidian:
convertInputSchema force-unwrapped a tool parameter's `type`, which
isn't required by JSON Schema — Obsidian's plugin was the first real
server to send a parameter without one. Live-verified end to end
(vault search/read/write/edit) before this commit, per the project's
standing rule to hold external-service-dependent changes until they're
actually confirmed working, not just compiling and passing tests.
This commit is contained in:
2026-08-13 16:05:42 +02:00
parent 30e18f92a5
commit 25028e3405
9 changed files with 1219 additions and 198 deletions
+44 -164
View File
@@ -5,22 +5,18 @@ import Foundation
// MARK: - ExternalMCPClient
/// Manages one MCP stdio server process. All state is MainActor-isolated
/// (consistent with SWIFT_DEFAULT_ACTOR_ISOLATION = MainActor project setting).
/// Background I/O runs in Task.detached; state mutations hop back to MainActor.
/// Owns one MCP server connection's lifecycle and JSON-RPC message framing. Delivery (stdio
/// subprocess vs Streamable HTTP) is delegated to a `MCPTransport` this class only builds
/// envelopes, decodes typed results, and tracks connection state.
/// All state is MainActor-isolated (consistent with SWIFT_DEFAULT_ACTOR_ISOLATION = MainActor
/// project setting).
@MainActor
final class ExternalMCPClient {
let server: ExternalMCPServer
weak var stateDelegate: (any ExternalMCPStateDelegate)?
private var process: Process?
private var stdinHandle: FileHandle?
private var readTask: Task<Void, Never>?
private var stderrTask: Task<Void, Never>?
private let transport: any MCPTransport
private var nextRequestId: Int = 1
private var pendingCalls: [Int: CheckedContinuation<Data, Error>] = [:]
private var lineBuffer = Data()
private(set) var state: MCPClientState = .idle
private(set) var discoveredTools: [MCPToolDefinition] = []
@@ -28,6 +24,31 @@ final class ExternalMCPClient {
init(server: ExternalMCPServer, stateDelegate: (any ExternalMCPStateDelegate)?) {
self.server = server
self.stateDelegate = stateDelegate
let stdioTransport: StdioMCPTransport?
switch server.transportKind {
case .stdio:
let t = StdioMCPTransport(server: server)
stdioTransport = t
self.transport = t
case .http:
stdioTransport = nil
self.transport = HTTPMCPTransport(server: server)
}
// `self` is only safe to capture once every stored property above has a value
// wire the crash callback here, after `init` would otherwise be considered complete.
stdioTransport?.onTerminated = { [weak self] in
self?.handleTransportTerminatedUnexpectedly()
}
}
/// Called by a stdio transport whose subprocess died on its own as opposed to a
/// deliberate `stop()` call, or a failure already handled inline within `start()`.
/// No HTTP equivalent: a Streamable HTTP connection has no persistent process to crash;
/// its failures surface per-request instead (handled in `start()`/`callTool()` directly).
private func handleTransportTerminatedUnexpectedly() {
guard state != .stopped else { return }
state = .crashed
stateDelegate?.clientDidChangeState(id: server.id, state: .crashed)
}
// MARK: - Lifecycle
@@ -37,54 +58,28 @@ final class ExternalMCPClient {
state = .connecting
stateDelegate?.clientDidChangeState(id: server.id, state: .connecting)
let proc = Process()
if server.command.hasPrefix("/") {
proc.executableURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: server.command)
proc.arguments = server.args
} else {
proc.executableURL = URL(fileURLWithPath: "/usr/bin/env")
proc.arguments = [server.command] + server.args
}
proc.environment = ProcessInfo.processInfo.environment
let stdinPipe = Pipe()
let stdoutPipe = Pipe()
let stderrPipe = Pipe()
proc.standardInput = stdinPipe
proc.standardOutput = stdoutPipe
proc.standardError = stderrPipe
proc.terminationHandler = { [weak self] _ in
Task { @MainActor [weak self] in self?.handleProcessTerminated() }
}
do {
try proc.run()
} catch {
state = .error(error.localizedDescription)
stateDelegate?.clientDidChangeState(id: server.id, state: .error(error.localizedDescription))
throw MCPClientError.processLaunchFailed(error.localizedDescription)
}
try await transport.prepare()
process = proc
stdinHandle = stdinPipe.fileHandleForWriting
startReadLoop(pipe: stdoutPipe)
startStderrLoop(pipe: stderrPipe)
do {
let _: MCPInitializeResult = try await timedRequest(seconds: 15, method: "initialize", params: [
"protocolVersion": "2024-11-05",
"capabilities": [:] as [String: Any],
"clientInfo": ["name": "Confab", "version": "1.0"] as [String: Any]
])
try sendNotification(method: "notifications/initialized")
try await transport.sendNotification(["jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "notifications/initialized"])
let toolsResult: MCPToolsListResult = try await timedRequest(seconds: 15, method: "tools/list", params: nil)
discoveredTools = toolsResult.tools
} catch {
state = .error(error.localizedDescription)
stateDelegate?.clientDidChangeState(id: server.id, state: .error(error.localizedDescription))
proc.terminate()
// Uniformly route every start() failure (bad config, launch failure, handshake
// failure for either transport) through .crashed, not .error, so
// ExternalMCPManager's restart-with-backoff drives from exactly one place.
// (Previously, stdio relied on the subprocess's termination handler firing
// asynchronously to reach .crashed; that path doesn't exist for HTTP, so failures
// there would otherwise get stuck at .error with no retry.)
state = .crashed
transport.stop()
stateDelegate?.clientDidChangeState(id: server.id, state: .crashed)
throw error
}
@@ -94,14 +89,7 @@ final class ExternalMCPClient {
func stop() {
state = .stopped
readTask?.cancel()
stderrTask?.cancel()
process?.terminate()
process = nil
stdinHandle = nil
lineBuffer = Data()
for (_, cont) in pendingCalls { cont.resume(throwing: MCPClientError.notConnected) }
pendingCalls.removeAll()
transport.stop()
}
// MARK: - Tool Execution
@@ -128,125 +116,17 @@ final class ExternalMCPClient {
}
}
// MARK: - I/O Loops (detached from MainActor)
private func startReadLoop(pipe: Pipe) {
readTask = Task.detached { [weak self] in
let handle = pipe.fileHandleForReading
while true {
let data = handle.availableData
if data.isEmpty { break }
await self?.receiveData(data)
}
}
}
private func startStderrLoop(pipe: Pipe) {
let name = server.name
stderrTask = Task.detached {
let handle = pipe.fileHandleForReading
var buf = Data()
while true {
let data = handle.availableData
if data.isEmpty { break }
buf.append(data)
while let idx = buf.firstIndex(of: UInt8(ascii: "\n")) {
let line = String(data: buf[buf.startIndex..<idx], encoding: .utf8) ?? ""
buf = Data(buf[buf.index(after: idx)...])
if !line.trimmingCharacters(in: .whitespaces).isEmpty {
Log.extMcp.warning("[\(name)] \(line)")
}
}
}
}
}
// MARK: - Data Processing (MainActor)
private func receiveData(_ data: Data) {
lineBuffer.append(data)
while let idx = lineBuffer.firstIndex(of: UInt8(ascii: "\n")) {
let lineData = Data(lineBuffer[lineBuffer.startIndex..<idx])
lineBuffer = Data(lineBuffer[lineBuffer.index(after: idx)...])
processLine(lineData)
}
}
private func processLine(_ data: Data) {
guard !data.isEmpty,
let json = try? JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data) as? [String: Any],
let id = json["id"] as? Int,
let cont = pendingCalls.removeValue(forKey: id) else { return }
if let err = json["error"] as? [String: Any] {
cont.resume(throwing: MCPClientError.invalidResponse(err["message"] as? String ?? "Unknown error"))
} else if let result = json["result"],
let resultData = try? JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: result) {
cont.resume(returning: resultData)
} else {
cont.resume(throwing: MCPClientError.invalidResponse("Missing result field"))
}
}
// MARK: - JSON-RPC
/// Send a JSON-RPC request with a per-call timeout. The timeout fires a cancellation
/// directly into the pending-calls table rather than using a task group (which would
/// pass the generic T through a @Sendable closure and trigger an isolated-conformance warning).
private func timedRequest<T: Decodable>(seconds: Double, method: String, params: [String: Any]?) async throws -> T {
let id = nextRequestId
nextRequestId += 1
var message: [String: Any] = ["jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": method, "id": id]
if let params { message["params"] = params }
try writeJSON(message)
// Schedule timeout: cancels the specific pending call by ID
let timeoutId = id
Task { [weak self, timeoutId] in
try? await Task.sleep(nanoseconds: UInt64(seconds * 1_000_000_000))
self?.cancelPendingCall(id: timeoutId, with: MCPClientError.timeout)
}
// Await response data, then decode on MainActor
let resultData: Data = try await withCheckedThrowingContinuation { cont in
pendingCalls[id] = cont
}
let resultData = try await transport.sendRequest(message, id: id, timeoutSeconds: seconds)
return try JSONDecoder().decode(T.self, from: resultData)
}
private func cancelPendingCall(id: Int, with error: Error) {
pendingCalls.removeValue(forKey: id)?.resume(throwing: error)
}
private func sendNotification(method: String) throws {
try writeJSON(["jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": method])
}
private func writeJSON(_ message: [String: Any]) throws {
guard let handle = stdinHandle, process?.isRunning == true else {
throw MCPClientError.writeFailed
}
guard let data = try? JSONSerialization.data(withJSONObject: message),
let line = String(data: data, encoding: .utf8) else {
throw MCPClientError.writeFailed
}
do {
try handle.write(contentsOf: Data((line + "\n").utf8))
} catch {
throw MCPClientError.writeFailed
}
}
// MARK: - Process termination
private func handleProcessTerminated() {
guard state != .stopped else { return }
state = .crashed
for (_, cont) in pendingCalls { cont.resume(throwing: MCPClientError.notConnected) }
pendingCalls.removeAll()
stateDelegate?.clientDidChangeState(id: server.id, state: .crashed)
}
// MARK: - Result conversion
private func convertMCPResult(_ result: MCPToolCallResult) -> [String: Any] {