# 🔧 Smithery Connection Issue - RESOLVED
## 🚨 Issue Summary
**Problem**: Connection timeouts and "401 Unauthorized" errors when trying to access the Rabi MCP Server on Smithery.
**Symptoms**:
- Smithery UI shows "Please configure the server to list available tools"
- Connection timeouts when trying to connect
- `curl` tests to `https://server.smithery.ai/@manasp21/rabi-mcp` return "401 Unauthorized"
## 🕵️ Root Cause Analysis
### Initial Hypothesis (Incorrect)
❌ **Transport Protocol Mismatch**: Initially suspected the issue was with stdio vs HTTP transport protocols.
### Actual Root Cause (Correct)
✅ **Server Not Deployed**: The real issue is that **the server has never been deployed to Smithery**.
### Key Diagnostic Findings
1. **URL Behavior**:
- ✅ `https://smithery.ai/` - Works (main website)
- ❌ `https://server.smithery.ai/@manasp21/rabi-mcp` - 401 Unauthorized (server doesn't exist)
- ❌ `https://server.smithery.ai/@manasp21/rabi-mcp/health` - 401 Unauthorized
2. **Authentication Pattern**:
- All endpoints on `server.smithery.ai` subdomain return 401 Unauthorized
- This indicates the server infrastructure exists but the specific server instance doesn't
3. **Smithery Infrastructure**:
- The subdomain `server.smithery.ai` is valid (no DNS errors)
- SSL/TLS handshake succeeds
- HTTP/2 connection established successfully
- Server returns proper HTTP responses (not timeouts)
## ✅ Solution
### Step 1: Deploy to Smithery (REQUIRED)
The server must be deployed first:
```bash
# Install Smithery CLI
npm install -g @smithery/cli
# Deploy the server (this creates the server instance)
npx @smithery/cli deploy https://github.com/manasp21/rabi-mcp.git
```
### Step 2: Verify Deployment
1. Go to [Smithery Dashboard](https://smithery.ai/)
2. Check deployment status
3. Wait for status to change from "Building" to "Running"
4. Server URL will only become accessible after successful deployment
### Step 3: Test Connection
After successful deployment:
```bash
# This should now work (return server info instead of 401)
curl https://server.smithery.ai/@manasp21/rabi-mcp/health
# MCP protocol should also work
curl -X POST https://server.smithery.ai/@manasp21/rabi-mcp \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "tools/list", "id": 1}'
```
## 🔍 Technical Details
### Why 401 Unauthorized?
The 401 response is Smithery's way of saying "this server instance doesn't exist" rather than a true authentication failure. When you deploy a server to Smithery:
1. **Pre-deployment**: All requests to `/@username/server-name` return 401
2. **During deployment**: Server shows "Building" status in dashboard
3. **Post-deployment**: Server responds with actual content
### Transport Protocol Fix
Our code correctly implements both transport protocols:
- **`src/mcp_server.py`**: stdio transport (for local use with Claude Desktop)
- **`src/http_server.py`**: HTTP transport (for Smithery cloud deployment)
- **`smithery.yaml`**: Configured for HTTP transport with correct port (8000)
## 📊 Diagnostic Commands Used
```bash
# Test 1: Direct curl to MCP endpoint
curl -v -X POST https://server.smithery.ai/@manasp21/rabi-mcp \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "initialize", "id": 1}'
# Result: 401 Unauthorized (server doesn't exist)
# Test 2: Health endpoint
curl -s https://server.smithery.ai/@manasp21/rabi-mcp/health
# Result: "Unauthorized" (server doesn't exist)
# Test 3: Main Smithery site
curl -s https://smithery.ai/
# Result: Full HTML page (site works fine)
# Test 4: DNS resolution
nslookup server.smithery.ai
# Result: Valid IPs (infrastructure exists)
```
## 🚀 Next Steps
1. **Deploy the server**:
```bash
npx @smithery/cli deploy https://github.com/manasp21/rabi-mcp.git
```
2. **Monitor deployment**:
- Check Smithery dashboard for build progress
- Look for any build errors in logs
- Wait for "Running" status
3. **Test after deployment**:
- Try connecting through Smithery UI
- Test with curl commands
- Verify all 25+ physics tools are available
## 📚 Lessons Learned
1. **Always deploy first**: Cloud services require deployment before URLs become accessible
2. **401 ≠ Authentication error**: In cloud contexts, 401 can mean "resource doesn't exist"
3. **Transport protocols were correct**: Our HTTP server implementation was actually fine
4. **Diagnostic methodology**: Test infrastructure layer by layer (DNS → TLS → HTTP → Application)
## ✅ Status: RESOLVED
**Solution**: Deploy to Smithery first using `npx @smithery/cli deploy https://github.com/manasp21/rabi-mcp.git`
**Expected Outcome**: After deployment, the server will be accessible and all physics tools will be available through Smithery's interface.
---
*This resolution confirms that the transport protocol fix was actually correct, but the fundamental issue was simply that the server needed to be deployed to the cloud platform first.*
