diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8f04d972..791f475e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 
 ## [0.13.1] - Unreleased
 
+### CLI
+
+- Allow tool requests to proceed after starting a legacy standalone SSE fetch instead of waiting indefinitely for response headers from idle streams.
+
 ## [0.13.0] - 2026-08-02
 
 ### MCP 2.0
diff --git a/src/runtime/http-transport.ts b/src/runtime/http-transport.ts
index 49d330fc..7321840b 100644
--- a/src/runtime/http-transport.ts
+++ b/src/runtime/http-transport.ts
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ function removeAuthorizationHeader(headers: Record<string, string> | undefined):
 }
 
 const NODE_HTTP1_FETCH_HOSTS: ReadonlySet<string> = new Set(['api.sunsama.com']);
+const STANDALONE_SSE_START_GRACE_MS = 250;
 
 function resolveHttpFetchOverride(definition: ServerDefinition): typeof nodeHttp1Fetch | undefined {
   if (definition.command.kind !== 'http' || definition.httpFetch === 'default') return undefined;
@@ -120,6 +121,16 @@ function trackStandaloneSseFetch(fetchOverride: FetchLike | undefined): {
   };
 }
 
+function waitForStandaloneSseStart(started: Promise<void>): Promise<void> {
+  return new Promise((resolve) => {
+    const timer = setTimeout(resolve, STANDALONE_SSE_START_GRACE_MS);
+    void started.then(() => {
+      clearTimeout(timer);
+      resolve();
+    });
+  });
+}
+
 async function closeOAuthSession(oauthSession?: OAuthSession): Promise<void> {
   await oauthSession?.close().catch(() => {});
 }
@@ -268,10 +279,10 @@ async function connectPrimaryHttpTransport(
     recreateTransport: async () => createStreamableTransport(),
   });
   // v2 starts the legacy standalone SSE receive channel asynchronously from
-  // notifications/initialized. Wait for its fetch to receive headers so
-  // callers cannot race their first request ahead of that channel.
+  // notifications/initialized. Give its fetch a bounded chance to receive
+  // headers without blocking servers that leave the response header-idle.
   if (typeof client.getProtocolEra === 'function' && client.getProtocolEra() === 'legacy') {
-    await transportOptions.standaloneSseStarted;
+    await waitForStandaloneSseStart(transportOptions.standaloneSseStarted);
   }
   return { client, transport, definition, oauthSession };
 }
diff --git a/tests/cli-idle-sse.integration.test.ts b/tests/cli-idle-sse.integration.test.ts
index 8718c8ff..35e035ce 100644
--- a/tests/cli-idle-sse.integration.test.ts
+++ b/tests/cli-idle-sse.integration.test.ts
@@ -104,7 +104,6 @@ describe('idle standalone SSE CLI integration', () => {
           connection: 'keep-alive',
           'content-type': 'text/event-stream',
         });
-        response.flushHeaders();
         return;
       }
 
@@ -184,7 +183,7 @@ describe('idle standalone SSE CLI integration', () => {
     await fs.rm(tempDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
   });
 
-  it('lists tools while a standalone SSE stream is open and byte-idle', async () => {
+  it('lists tools while a standalone SSE response leaves its headers pending', async () => {
     const result = await runCli(['list', 'idle', '--json', '--timeout', '2000'], configPath, preloadPath);
 
     expect(result.stderr).toBe('');
diff --git a/tests/e2e-fixture-servers.test.ts b/tests/e2e-fixture-servers.test.ts
index 55d7d9cb..e26b9097 100644
--- a/tests/e2e-fixture-servers.test.ts
+++ b/tests/e2e-fixture-servers.test.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import { execFile, spawn, type ChildProcess } from 'node:child_process';
 import fs from 'node:fs/promises';
+import { createServer, request as httpRequest } from 'node:http';
 import { createRequire } from 'node:module';
+import type { AddressInfo } from 'node:net';
 import path from 'node:path';
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url';
 import {
@@ -36,7 +38,9 @@ type CliResult = { stdout: string; stderr: string; exitCode: number };
 
 let legacyHttp: RunningFixture;
 let modernHttp: RunningFixture;
+let delayedLegacyHeadersProxy: RunningHttpProxy;
 const spawnedChildren = new Set<ChildProcess>();
+const DELAYED_LEGACY_SSE_HEADERS_MS = 500;
 
 interface RunningFixture {
   child: ChildProcess;
@@ -44,6 +48,11 @@ interface RunningFixture {
   stderr: () => string;
 }
 
+interface RunningHttpProxy {
+  url: string;
+  close: () => Promise<void>;
+}
+
 beforeAll(async () => {
   await fs.access(CLI_ENTRY).catch(() => {
     throw new Error('dist/cli.js is missing; run `pnpm build` before invoking this e2e file directly.');
@@ -52,9 +61,11 @@ beforeAll(async () => {
     startHttpFixture('legacy', LEGACY_SERVER),
     startHttpFixture('modern', MODERN_SERVER),
   ]);
+  delayedLegacyHeadersProxy = await startDelayedSseHeadersProxy(legacyHttp.url, DELAYED_LEGACY_SSE_HEADERS_MS);
 }, budget(20_000));
 
 afterAll(async () => {
+  await delayedLegacyHeadersProxy.close();
   await Promise.allSettled([...spawnedChildren].map((child) => stopChild(child)));
 });
 
@@ -140,6 +151,23 @@ describe.each(transports)('legacy long-tail over %s', (transport) => {
   });
 });
 
+it('handles legacy elicitation when standalone SSE headers arrive after the startup grace', async () => {
+  await withConfig(
+    {
+      fixture: {
+        ...configFor('legacy', 'http'),
+        baseUrl: delayedLegacyHeadersProxy.url,
+      },
+    },
+    async (configPath, env) => {
+      const elicited = await runCli(['call', 'fixture.elicit_name', '--output', 'text'], configPath, env);
+      expect(elicited.exitCode, elicited.stderr).toBe(0);
+      expect(elicited.stderr).toContain('Server requested interactive input; run mcporter in a terminal.');
+      expect(elicited.stdout).toContain('elicitation decline');
+    }
+  );
+});
+
 describe.each(transports)('modern MRTR and identity over %s', (transport) => {
   it('declines cleanly through the CLI and reports per-request client identity', async () => {
     await withConfig({ fixture: configFor('modern', transport) }, async (configPath, env) => {
@@ -425,6 +453,52 @@ async function startHttpFixture(
   }
 }
 
+async function startDelayedSseHeadersProxy(targetUrl: string, delayMs: number): Promise<RunningHttpProxy> {
+  const target = new URL(targetUrl);
+  const proxy = createServer((request, response) => {
+    const upstreamRequest = httpRequest(
+      target,
+      {
+        method: request.method,
+        headers: request.headers,
+      },
+      (upstreamResponse) => {
+        const forwardResponse = () => {
+          if (response.destroyed) {
+            upstreamResponse.destroy();
+            return;
+          }
+          response.writeHead(upstreamResponse.statusCode ?? 502, upstreamResponse.headers);
+          upstreamResponse.pipe(response);
+        };
+        if (request.method === 'GET') {
+          setTimeout(forwardResponse, delayMs);
+        } else {
+          forwardResponse();
+        }
+      }
+    );
+    upstreamRequest.on('error', (error) => {
+      if (!response.headersSent) response.writeHead(502);
+      response.end(error.message);
+    });
+    request.pipe(upstreamRequest);
+  });
+  await new Promise<void>((resolve, reject) => {
+    proxy.once('error', reject);
+    proxy.listen(0, '127.0.0.1', resolve);
+  });
+  const address = proxy.address() as AddressInfo;
+  return {
+    url: `http://127.0.0.1:${address.port}/mcp`,
+    close: async () => {
+      await new Promise<void>((resolve, reject) => {
+        proxy.close((error) => (error ? reject(error) : resolve()));
+      });
+    },
+  };
+}
+
 async function startBridge(configPath: string, env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv): Promise<RunningFixture> {
   const child = trackChild(
     spawn(process.execPath, [CLI_ENTRY, '--config', configPath, 'serve', '--http', '0'], {