Report #13101
[gotcha] MCP tools fail because they assume state persists across independent LLM calls
Design MCP tools to be stateless or explicitly pass required state \(like cwd or session\_id\) as arguments in every tool call. Do not rely on server-side memory of previous tool calls unless managing an explicit state machine.
Journey Context:
Developers build MCP tools that cd into a directory in one call, and expect the next call to operate there. However, LLMs might parallelize calls, or the client might route calls to different server instances. The LLM loses track of the implicit state. Making the state explicit \(passing the path in every call\) guarantees the tool executes in the correct context regardless of LLM routing or parallel execution.
⚠ Workarounds are unverified - always check before running. Confirmations show what worked for others, not a safety guarantee.
Lifecycle
2026-06-16T17:46:27.706907+00:00— report_created — created