Gap Source

Goose v1.28.0 (March 18, 2026) added MCP Roots protocol support. Competitive parity scan CI-307.

What Is Missing

MCP Roots is a standard MCP protocol capability. Root-aware MCP servers can:

1. Query roots/list to discover which filesystem directories the session is scoped to
2. Receive roots/list_changed notifications when the working directory changes

Zeph's MCP client passes no roots; MCP servers implicitly use the process cwd.

Why It Matters

Root-aware MCP servers (code indexing, file editing, search) need to know which directory trees they can legally access. Without this:

• Multi-project setups get the wrong cwd
• MCP servers require out-of-band configuration workarounds
• Protocol non-conformance visible to server implementations that check for roots

Implementation Sketch

• Add roots field to McpServerConfig (list of {uri, name} pairs)
• Respond to roots/list requests from MCP servers with configured roots
• Emit roots/list_changed notification when session cwd changes (e.g., after index re-scan)
• MCP spec section: https://spec.modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/client/roots/

Priority

P2 — protocol conformance gap, visible to users with multi-project setups or root-aware MCP servers.