Subject: MCP Server Container Exits with SIGTERM - No Tools Available

Docker Desktop
1

Problem Summary: I’m running a docker-mcp-server (v0.0.1) that successfully establishes JSON-RPC connection and handshake, but reports no available tools and eventually exits with SIGTERM.

Environment:

  • Server: docker-mcp-server v0.0.1
  • Protocol: JSON-RPC 2.0 with MCP protocol version 2024-11-05
  • Process: Using socat for connection handling

Observed Behavior:

- Initial handshake successful with capabilities reported
- Multiple tools/list requests return empty arrays: {"tools":[]}
- Container exits after ~26 seconds with: "socat[1] W exiting on signal 15"

Expected Behavior: Server should maintain connection and provide available MCP tools for client interaction.

Questions:

  1. Why might the tools list be empty despite successful capability negotiation?
  2. What could cause the automatic SIGTERM after a short runtime?
  3. Are there configuration files or environment variables I should check?
  4. Is this a common issue with MCP server setup in Docker containers?
3

Have you already solved it or did you get help somewhere else?

If not, I can try to find someone who has more experience with MCP server. There is also another topic that could be related, but we could not answer yet

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