[Bug] MCP Server not working in Azure

[gebauerm]

Bugreport

The bug refers to librechat not beeing able to connect to smithery.ai remote servers. Librechat serves as a chatinterface to use different LLMs. Additionally it also can use Model Context Protocol (MCP) to connect to other systems. Smithery.ai provides remote Sevrers, which can be accessed. Via the remote server we are able to use MCP Tools like Academa. In this case the bug refers to connecting a remote academia MCP Server with our MCP Host Librechat. The connection can not be established.

Environment

Everything is performed on an Azure Sandbox, with Windows.
Pods are setup with Podman and Podman Compose. For all prerequisites please refer to the guide under "prerequisites".

To Reproduce

To reproduce please do everything up to and including point the in the guide.
For credentials contact the repo owner, or create own accounts.

When you reached point 3 do the following:
Open LibreChat and add academia as your MCP Server by clicking on it

Expected Behavior

The search should be performed when asked for a paper, as seen below:

Search processing bars should appear.

Afterwards the Results should be displayed:

The complete log can be found here

Hint: The behavior was sometimes unpredictable. The Server would sometimes throw random errors. However the search itseld was still initiated, it just ended with a timeout. The seen behavior is not the same reported in the part below. A simple restart fixed the issue.

Actual Behavior

The Bug occurs, when the connection to the MCP Server can not be established. Hence, no search symbols appear. This becomes obvious when the respective MCP-Server shows an orange disconnected sign.

In the Librechat Logs the following error messages appear:

        2025-11-18 14:34:05 �[31merror�[39m: �[31m[MCP][User: 68f8caa4c0b0b2c0720597d6][academia_mcp] Connection failed: MCP error -32001: Request timed out�[39m
        2025-11-18 14:34:05 �[31merror�[39m: �[31m[MCP][academia_mcp][68f8caa4c0b0b2c0720597d6] Failed to connect after 3 attempts MCP error -32001: Request timed out�[39m
        2025-11-18 14:34:06 �[31merror�[39m: �[31m[MCP][User: 68f8caa4c0b0b2c0720597d6][academia_mcp] Failed to establish connection MCP error -32001: Request timed out�[39m

Complete logs can be found here

[gebauerm]

I executed this command on the lokal Azure Sandbox and it failed:
npx -y @smithery/cli@latest run @IlyaGusev/academia_mcp

I get an connetion timeout when the package tries to connect to the remote MCP. ChatGPT says this is an Issue with Network/Proxy etc.

Logs
2026-01-07T15:44:42.147Z [Runner] Connecting to server: {"id":"@IlyaGusev/academia_mcp","connectionType":"http"}
2026-01-07T15:44:42.151Z [DEPRECATED] Direct HTTP server execution is deprecated. Please use 'smithery install' to configure the server for your client instead.
2026-01-07T15:44:42.153Z [Runner] Starting child process setup...
2026-01-07T15:44:42.153Z [Runner] Executing: {"command":"cmd","args":["/c","npx","-y","mcp-remote","https://server.smithery.ai/@IlyaGusev/academia_mcp/mcp"]}
[1068] Using existing client port: 18042
[1068] Discovering OAuth server configuration...
[1068] Discovered authorization server: https://auth.smithery.ai/@IlyaGusev/academia_mcp
[1068] [1068] Connecting to remote server: https://server.smithery.ai/@IlyaGusev/academia_mcp/mcp
[1068] Using transport strategy: http-first
[1068] Connection error: _McpError: MCP error -32001: Request timed out
at _McpError.fromError (file:///C:/Users/MichaelGebauer/AppData/Local/npm-cache/_npx/705d23756ff7dacc/node_modules/mcp-remote/dist/chunk-F76MHFRJ.js:11974:12)
at Timeout.timeoutHandler (file:///C:/Users/MichaelGebauer/AppData/Local/npm-cache/_npx/705d23756ff7dacc/node_modules/mcp-remote/dist/chunk-F76MHFRJ.js:16248:52)
at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:594:17)
at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:529:7) {
code: -32001,
data: { timeout: 60000 }
}
[1068] Fatal error: _McpError: MCP error -32001: Request timed out
at _McpError.fromError (file:///C:/Users/MichaelGebauer/AppData/Local/npm-cache/_npx/705d23756ff7dacc/node_modules/mcp-remote/dist/chunk-F76MHFRJ.js:11974:12)
at Timeout.timeoutHandler (file:///C:/Users/MichaelGebauer/AppData/Local/npm-cache/_npx/705d23756ff7dacc/node_modules/mcp-remote/dist/chunk-F76MHFRJ.js:16248:52)
at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:594:17)
at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:529:7) {
code: -32001,
data: { timeout: 60000 }
}
2026-01-07T15:45:46.277Z [Runner] Child process terminated
2026-01-07T15:45:46.278Z [Runner] Process terminated unexpectedly while running
2026-01-07T15:45:46.278Z [Runner] Exit handler triggered, starting shutdown...
2026-01-07T15:45:46.278Z [Runner] Starting cleanup...
2026-01-07T15:45:46.279Z [Runner] Attempting to close transport...
2026-01-07T15:45:46.282Z [Runner] Transport closed successfully
2026-01-07T15:45:46.283Z [Runner] Cleanup completed
2026-01-07T15:45:46.283Z [Runner] Final cleanup on exit