MCP `tools/list` pagination (nextCursor) not followed

[ari-luokkala]

Describe the bug

GitHub Copilot CLI does not follow MCP pagination when the server returns a nextCursor in the tools/list response. Only the first page of tools is loaded; subsequent pages are silently ignored. This violates the MCP specification which defines cursor-based pagination for tool listing.

Affected version

v1.0.68

Steps to reproduce the behavior

Reproduction

1. Connect to an MCP server that returns more tools than fit in a single page
2. The server returns page 1 with a nextCursor field indicating more tools are available
3. GitHub Copilot CLI never requests the next page, tools from page 2+ are missing

Evidence

MCP gateway returns a valid nextCursor (opaque) in the first tools/list response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "result": {
    "tools": [
      /* ... 30 tools ... */
    ],
    "nextCursor": "AQICAHj..."
  }
}

Per the MCP specification, the client MUST send a subsequent tools/list request with cursor set to the nextCursor value to retrieve remaining tools.

Expected behavior

GitHub Copilot CLI should follow pagination by sending additional tools/list requests with the cursor parameter until the server returns a response without nextCursor, then merge all pages into the complete tool set.

Additional context

MCP Specification Reference

From the MCP spec:(https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/draft/server/utilities/pagination):

Operations Supporting Pagination:

• tools/list - List available tools

Implementation Guidelines:

• Clients SHOULD treat a missing nextCursor as the end of results
• Clients SHOULD support both paginated and non-paginated flows
• Clients MUST treat cursors as opaque tokens

The spec defines that when a response includes nextCursor, the client continues paginating by issuing a request with "cursor": "<value>" until no nextCursor is returned. Not doing so results in an incomplete tool set.

Impact

Any MCP server that paginates its tool list will have tools silently missing in GitHub Copilot CLI.