Sessions & revocation

MCP is stateful: a client connects, discovers tools, and makes calls over a session. MCP Gateway gives those sessions a governed lifecycle so they can be inspected, drained for upgrades, and revoked instantly.

What a session tracks

• A client session id (and backend session ids where the upstream needs them).
• Affinity so a session stays pinned to the data plane handling it.
• Durable metadata for reconnect, plus external metadata you can attach.
• A lifecycle: active → idle → draining → terminated / revoked / expired / failed.

Drain vs. terminate vs. revoke

• Drain — stop accepting new work on a session and let in‑flight work finish. Used during upgrades so callers reconnect cleanly.
• Terminate — end a specific session now.
• Revoke — a governance action that fans out: it tears down affected active sessions immediately and blocks reattach. Because the control plane records the decision and re‑projects, every data plane enforces it on the very next request.

See Manage sessions for the UI, API, and CLI for each.

Revocation is fast because authority lives in the control plane

The data plane never holds standalone authority — it enforces the projected truth. So revoking an agent, credential, or session takes effect immediately everywhere, not on a cache‑expiry timer.

See it illustrated See the session state machine and a revocation fanning out to active sessions, illustrated.