# The MCP reliability & security gap — and an open-source proxy that fills it

> Source: <https://dev.to/gowthaman90/the-mcp-reliability-security-gap-and-an-open-source-proxy-that-fills-it-3ppo>
> Published: 2026-07-08 13:31:18+00:00

As AI agents move from demos to production, the **Model Context Protocol (MCP)** has become the default way to give them tools. But the operational layer around MCP is still immature, and two gaps show up fast.

MCP servers disconnect mid-session — a crashed subprocess, a dropped network stream — and the agent has no good signal. It sees a generic *"No such tool available"* error, indistinguishable from a tool that never existed. Worse, it can't reconnect itself; a human has to intervene. In a long autonomous run, capabilities silently vanish and the agent fails in confusing ways.

MCP tools are described in natural language that the model reads and acts on. That creates two live threats:

Runtime defenses for these live mostly in paid platforms.

[ mcp-bastion](https://github.com/Gowthaman90/mcp-bastion) is a proxy that addresses both, and it's deliberately boring to adopt: it's a

It's organized in three layers:

`bastion__status`

, `bastion__reconnect`

) that let the agent itself inspect and recover connections.It speaks both stdio and Streamable HTTP. TypeScript, Apache-2.0, layered architecture, tests, and CI.

```
npx mcp-bastion
```

Repo: [https://github.com/Gowthaman90/mcp-bastion](https://github.com/Gowthaman90/mcp-bastion)

It's early and I'd love feedback — especially on the security heuristics and which audit sinks people want.