MCP ping method removed in 2026-07-28: Sume still replies {}

The MCP 2026-07-28 changelog lists "Remove ping" among its changes, so a client built for that revision should not depend on it. Sume's hosted MCP server still handles a ping request and returns an empty result {}, because it speaks 2025-03-26, 2025-06-18 and 2025-11-25. For a liveness check that survives both, call tools_list or the mcp_health tool.

Spec text is from the MCP changelog and Sume behavior from the MCP server source and docs, read 2026-10-01.

What did the spec remove?

The changelog's line reads "Remove ping, logging/setLevel, and notifications/roots/list_changed". It sits beside the removal of the initialize handshake and protocol-level sessions, so a client has less to keep alive in the first place.

What does Sume return for each method?

Which versions does Sume negotiate?

The source answers with the version a client requests if it is 2025-03-26, 2025-06-18 or 2025-11-25, and with 2025-11-25 otherwise. That is why the removed method is still there: those revisions define it. See which version the hosted server speaks.

What should my health check call instead?

Use something that exists in every revision and proves auth and routing: tools_list, or mcp_health, which the docs describe as endpoint readiness, auth source and safety posture. A plain HTTP GET to the MCP host root also returns an endpoint info body with methods listing POST, per the server source. Do not treat a -32601 on ping as an outage; it means the method is unsupported, not that the server is down.