[aw-failures] Daily Fact About gh-aw: mempalace MCP server missing 'container' property breaks agent startup (MCP Gateway v0.2.30) #28269

Problem Statement

The Daily Fact About gh-aw workflow (codex engine) fails at agent setup — 0 turns, 0 tokens — because MCP Gateway v0.2.30 rejects the mempalace MCP server configuration due to a missing container property. The agent never starts.

This is a breaking change: any workflow whose MCP config uses mempalace (or other non-container MCPs in the old format) will silently fail at setup with exit code 1.

Evidence

Error from workflow-logs/4_agent.txt:

config:validation_schema Schema validation failed:
jsonschema: '/mcpServers/mempalace' does not validate with
https://docs.github.com/gh-aw/schemas/mcp-gateway-config.schema.json#/
properties/mcpServers/additionalProperties/$ref/oneOf/0/$ref/required:
missing properties: 'container'

failed to load config: Configuration validation error (MCP Gateway version: v0.2.30):
    Error: oneOf failed
        Error: not failed

The mempalace server is installed via pip (mempalace==3.2.0, backed by chromadb) and runs as a Python process. It was configured without a container property — a property that MCP Gateway v0.2.30's updated schema now requires in the mcpServers oneOf/0 branch.

Probable Root Cause

MCP Gateway v0.2.30 introduced a schema change requiring a container property on mcpServers entries. The mempalace MCP config predates this change and uses the old process-based format, which no longer satisfies either oneOf branch of the updated schema.

Proposed Remediation

1. Locate the MCP Gateway config for the Daily Fact workflow and find the mempalace entry
2. Determine the correct v0.2.30 schema format for Python/process-based MCPs:
   • If a container field is required even for Python MCPs, add it
   • If the schema provides a different branch for non-container MCPs, migrate the config to that branch
3. Check the MCP Gateway v0.2.30 release notes or schema diff for the full scope of the change
4. Audit other workflows that use mempalace or similar non-container MCPs — they may be broken too

Success Criteria

• Daily Fact About gh-aw agent setup succeeds (>0 turns) on next scheduled run
• No other workflows show missing properties: 'container' in MCP Gateway validation
• A regression test or config lint step catches this pattern before it reaches production

Related to #28245

Generated by [aw] Failure Investigator (6h) · ● 319.7K · ◷

• expires on May 1, 2026, 1:20 PM UTC