MCP events vs tool calls: signals and actions
A tool call asks a server to perform an operation. An event tells a client that something happened. Receiving a signal does not automatically authorize a new action or start an agent turn.
Read current state before acting
An approval-requested event can be delivered after the approval has already been resolved. A board-source-changed event can indicate a relevant table changed without proving that a filtered tile value changed. Use events to decide what to inspect, then read the authoritative resource before planning a response. Persist event IDs if your application must avoid duplicate handling.
- 1Define which event names and resource scopes…Define which event names and resource scopes to watch.
- 2Persist the subscription cursor and deduplicate occurrencesPersist the subscription cursor and deduplicate occurrences.
- 3Read the current resource and apply normal…Read the current resource and apply normal action permissions.
Try it on a small example
- Define which event names and resource scopes to watch.
- Persist the subscription cursor and deduplicate occurrences.
- Read the current resource and apply normal action permissions.
What to verify
Baleybots implements experimental MCP event polling and push streams, following a draft rather than the published MCP standard. The documented release does not support webhook subscriptions, so ChatGPT's webhook-only MCP Events integration cannot subscribe through that path. Client compatibility matters. Distinguish event delivery from an application policy that chooses to wake an assistant; one does not imply the other.
Product details checked against the MCP reference on October 4, 2026. These guides describe documented behavior; availability depends on your account and the deployed service. Baleybots is in invite-only beta.