diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7d9a859a..c61e6266 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ All notable changes to `mcp/sdk` will be documented in this file.
 * [BC Break] `AbstractSchemaDefinition` declares an abstract `getDefault()`, which a custom schema definition has to implement.
 * Fix `Client::getPrompt()` without arguments sending `"arguments": []`, which servers validating the spec's object type (e.g. the TypeScript SDK) reject: empty arguments are now omitted.
 * Add `Tool::$execution` (`ToolExecution` with a `TaskSupport` enum) and `ServerCapabilities::$tasks`, which were dropped when parsing a 2025-11-25 server's `tools/list` and `initialize` results.
+* Fix a request to the client (sampling, elicitation, roots) intermittently timing out over HTTP when the server runs in several processes: the stream waiting for the answer saved the session on every poll, and could overwrite the answer another process had just stored.
 
 0.8.0
 -----
diff --git a/src/Server/Protocol.php b/src/Server/Protocol.php
index e92991f3..a441542d 100644
--- a/src/Server/Protocol.php
+++ b/src/Server/Protocol.php
@@ -518,6 +518,11 @@ public function consumeOutgoingMessages(Uuid $sessionId): array
     {
         $session = $this->sessionManager->createWithId($sessionId);
         $queue = $session->get(self::SESSION_OUTGOING_QUEUE, []);
+
+        if ([] === $queue) {
+            return [];
+        }
+
         $session->set(self::SESSION_OUTGOING_QUEUE, []);
         $session->save();
 
diff --git a/tests/Unit/Server/ProtocolSessionRaceTest.php b/tests/Unit/Server/ProtocolSessionRaceTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..da122ccd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Unit/Server/ProtocolSessionRaceTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+<?php
+
+/*
+ * This file is part of the official PHP MCP SDK.
+ *
+ * A collaboration between Symfony and the PHP Foundation.
+ *
+ * For the full copyright and license information, please view the LICENSE
+ * file that was distributed with this source code.
+ */
+
+namespace Mcp\Tests\Unit\Server;
+
+use Mcp\JsonRpc\MessageFactory;
+use Mcp\Schema\JsonRpc\Response;
+use Mcp\Server\Protocol;
+use Mcp\Server\Session\InMemorySessionStore;
+use Mcp\Server\Session\SessionManager;
+use Mcp\Server\Session\SessionStoreInterface;
+use Mcp\Server\Transport\TransportInterface;
+use PHPUnit\Framework\Attributes\TestDox;
+use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
+use Symfony\Component\Uid\Uuid;
+
+/**
+ * Two workers sharing one session: one holds a tool call's SSE stream open and
+ * polls the session for the client's answer, the other receives that answer as
+ * a separate POST and stores it.
+ */
+final class ProtocolSessionRaceTest extends TestCase
+{
+    #[TestDox('polling the session does not overwrite a client response stored meanwhile')]
+    public function testPollingDoesNotOverwriteAConcurrentResponse(): void
+    {
+        $store = new InterleavingSessionStore(new InMemorySessionStore());
+        $sessions = new SessionManager($store, gcProbability: 0);
+        $sessionId = Uuid::v4();
+        $sessions->createWithId($sessionId)->save();
+
+        $waiting = new Protocol([], [], MessageFactory::make(), $sessions);
+        $answering = new Protocol([], [], MessageFactory::make(), $sessions);
+        $transport = $this->createMock(TransportInterface::class);
+
+        // The answer lands right after the waiting worker read the session,
+        // before anything it does next could write the session back.
+        $store->afterNextRead(static function () use ($answering, $transport, $sessionId): void {
+            $answering->processInput($transport, '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 7, "result": {"ok": true}}', $sessionId);
+        });
+
+        // One turn of the waiting worker's loop, with nothing queued to send.
+        $this->assertSame([], $waiting->consumeOutgoingMessages($sessionId));
+
+        $this->assertInstanceOf(Response::class, $waiting->checkResponse(7, $sessionId));
+    }
+}
+
+/**
+ * Runs a callback once, right after the next read, to interleave another
+ * worker's write with the reader's read-modify-write.
+ */
+final class InterleavingSessionStore implements SessionStoreInterface
+{
+    /** @var (\Closure(): void)|null */
+    private ?\Closure $afterNextRead = null;
+
+    public function __construct(
+        private readonly SessionStoreInterface $store,
+    ) {
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @param \Closure(): void $callback
+     */
+    public function afterNextRead(\Closure $callback): void
+    {
+        $this->afterNextRead = $callback;
+    }
+
+    public function exists(Uuid $id): bool
+    {
+        return $this->store->exists($id);
+    }
+
+    public function read(Uuid $id): string|false
+    {
+        $data = $this->store->read($id);
+
+        if (null !== $callback = $this->afterNextRead) {
+            $this->afterNextRead = null;
+            $callback();
+        }
+
+        return $data;
+    }
+
+    public function write(Uuid $id, string $data): bool
+    {
+        return $this->store->write($id, $data);
+    }
+
+    public function destroy(Uuid $id): bool
+    {
+        return $this->store->destroy($id);
+    }
+
+    public function gc(): array
+    {
+        return $this->store->gc();
+    }
+}