MCP tools/list pagination (nextCursor) not followed — tools silently truncated

Summary

Claude Code does not follow nextCursor pagination when calling tools/list on MCP servers. Only the first page of tools is fetched; the nextCursor in the response is silently ignored. Tools beyond the first page are completely invisible and uncallable.

Reproduction

1. Connect Claude Code to an MCP server (HTTP transport) that exposes more tools than fit in a single tools/list response page
2. Manually verify the server's full tool count by following nextCursor pagination via curl (or MCP Inspector)
3. Start a fresh Claude Code session and count the tools it registers from that server

Result: Claude Code only registers tools from the first page. It sends a single tools/list request, receives tools + a nextCursor, and never sends a follow-up request. All tools on subsequent pages are silently dropped with no warning.

Expected Behavior

Per the MCP Specification:

Clients SHOULD support both paginated and non-paginated flows for all list endpoints.

Claude Code should follow the cursor until nextCursor is null:

cursor = None
all_tools = []
while True:
    response = tools/list(cursor)
    all_tools.extend(response.tools)
    if not response.nextCursor:
        break
    cursor = response.nextCursor

Impact

• Silent data loss: Users see a subset of tools with no warning that more exist
• Breaks MCP gateways: Gateways aggregating tools from multiple backend servers commonly paginate — this is a standard enterprise pattern
• No client-side workaround: Users cannot configure Claude Code to fetch more tools; the only workaround is modifying the server to disable pagination, which isn't always possible

Environment

• Claude Code CLI (latest)
• Windows 11
• MCP server connected via HTTP transport

Prior Issues

• #24785 — Detailed repro with AWS Bedrock AgentCore Gateway, closed by stale bot as "not planned," now locked
• #8237 — Feature request with screenshots, self-closed by author, now locked
• #3141 — Resources pagination, auto-closed for inactivity, now locked

None of these were resolved. The bug persists as of April 2026.