diff --git a/clients/web/src/test/core/mcp/inspectorClient-peer-handler-timing.test.ts b/clients/web/src/test/core/mcp/inspectorClient-peer-handler-timing.test.ts
index c1ddd36c8..e0021b09c 100644
--- a/clients/web/src/test/core/mcp/inspectorClient-peer-handler-timing.test.ts
+++ b/clients/web/src/test/core/mcp/inspectorClient-peer-handler-timing.test.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { describe, it, expect, vi } from "vitest";
+import { SdkErrorCode, SdkHttpError } from "@modelcontextprotocol/client";
 import type {
   JSONRPCMessage,
   Root,
@@ -1240,4 +1241,64 @@ describe("InspectorClient peer-handler timing (#1797)", () => {
     expect(silent.getRoots()).toEqual([{ uri: "file:///a" }]);
     await silent.disconnect();
   });
+
+  /*
+   * The SDK's StreamableHTTP `_send` reports a failed POST through `onerror`
+   * and then rethrows it to the sender. A deterministic HTTP refusal is a
+   * refused request, which its rejection already surfaces, so it must not
+   * error the whole connection (#2776). Anything else reported here still does.
+   */
+  describe("transport onerror (#2776)", () => {
+    async function connectedClient() {
+      const transport = new SampleAfterConnectTransport();
+      const client = new InspectorClient(
+        { type: "stdio", command: "noop", args: [] },
+        { environment: { transport: () => ({ transport }) } },
+      );
+      await client.connect();
+      const errors: unknown[] = [];
+      client.addEventListener("error", (e) => errors.push(e.detail));
+      return { client, transport, errors };
+    }
+
+    const postFailure = (status: number, statusText: string) =>
+      new SdkHttpError(
+        SdkErrorCode.ClientHttpNotImplemented,
+        `Error POSTing to endpoint: ${statusText}`,
+        { status, statusText },
+      );
+
+    it.each([
+      [400, "Bad Request"],
+      [403, "Forbidden"],
+      [404, "Not Found"],
+      [405, "Method Not Allowed"],
+    ])(
+      "keeps the connection up for a POST refused with HTTP %i",
+      async (status, statusText) => {
+        const { client, transport, errors } = await connectedClient();
+        transport.onerror?.(postFailure(status, statusText));
+        expect(client.getStatus()).toBe("connected");
+        expect(errors).toEqual([]);
+        await client.disconnect();
+      },
+    );
+
+    it.each([
+      ["a transient POST failure (HTTP 503)", postFailure(503, "Unavailable")],
+      [
+        "an auth failure",
+        new SdkHttpError(SdkErrorCode.ClientHttpAuthentication, "Forbidden", {
+          status: 403,
+        }),
+      ],
+      ["a non-HTTP transport error", new Error("stream broke")],
+    ])("still errors the connection for %s", async (_label, error) => {
+      const { client, transport, errors } = await connectedClient();
+      transport.onerror?.(error);
+      expect(client.getStatus()).toBe("error");
+      expect(errors).toEqual([error]);
+      await client.disconnect();
+    });
+  });
 });
diff --git a/clients/web/src/test/integration/mcp/inspectorClient-subscriptions-era.test.ts b/clients/web/src/test/integration/mcp/inspectorClient-subscriptions-era.test.ts
index 2d95734e0..4da2c92cb 100644
--- a/clients/web/src/test/integration/mcp/inspectorClient-subscriptions-era.test.ts
+++ b/clients/web/src/test/integration/mcp/inspectorClient-subscriptions-era.test.ts
@@ -1275,6 +1275,9 @@ describe("resource subscriptions era fork (#1630)", () => {
           refusal: { status: 403, statusText: "Forbidden" },
         });
         expect(internals(connected).modernReconnectAttempts).toBe(0);
+        // The Node transport reports the refused POST through `onerror` too;
+        // a refused request is not a failed connection (#2776).
+        expect(connected.getStatus()).toBe("connected");
       });
 
       it("reports the refusal even when the rollback empties the filter", async () => {
@@ -1307,6 +1310,13 @@ describe("resource subscriptions era fork (#1630)", () => {
           status: "refused",
           refusal: { status: 403 },
         });
+        // This is the TUI's path to its refusal line: on the Node transport
+        // the session must survive the refused connect-time listen (#2776).
+        expect(connected.getStatus()).toBe("connected");
+        expect(connected.getResourceSubscriptionStreamState().refusal).toEqual({
+          status: 403,
+          statusText: "Forbidden",
+        });
       });
 
       it.each([400, 404, 405])(
@@ -1333,10 +1343,11 @@ describe("resource subscriptions era fork (#1630)", () => {
 
       /*
        * The tests above drive the Node transport, which reports a failed POST
-       * through `onerror` as well as rejecting it — so the client is already
-       * `error` by the time the reconnect timer would fire, and the timer bails
-       * on the terminal status either way. The web client's remote transport
-       * rejects without `onerror`, which is the path the smoke observed the
+       * through `onerror` as well as rejecting it. Since #2776 that report no
+       * longer errors the client for a refusal, so the session stays connected
+       * there too; before it, the client was already `error` by the time the
+       * reconnect timer would fire. The web client's remote transport rejects
+       * without `onerror`, which is the path the smoke observed the
        * eight-attempt run on. These stub `listen()` with the error that
        * transport rebuilds (#2660) to model it: the session stays connected,
        * and only the classification stands between the refusal and the retry.
diff --git a/core/mcp/inspectorClient.ts b/core/mcp/inspectorClient.ts
index 5c918cd46..a202a748f 100644
--- a/core/mcp/inspectorClient.ts
+++ b/core/mcp/inspectorClient.ts
@@ -1345,6 +1345,16 @@ export class InspectorClient extends InspectorClientEventTarget {
       // from any non-"connecting" state captures the reason regardless of
       // ordering.
       if (this.status === "connecting") return;
+      // A deterministic HTTP refusal of a POST is a refused REQUEST, not a
+      // failed connection (#2776). The SDK's StreamableHTTP `_send` reports it
+      // here and then rethrows it to the sender, so the request's rejection
+      // already surfaces it, and #2722's listen refusal settles its own stream
+      // status from that rejection. Flipping the client to "error" here made
+      // that status unreachable on the Node transport. The classifier matches
+      // only the code the SDK throws from its POST path, so a failure with no
+      // other surface (an SSE GET stream, a dropped connection, a 5xx) and
+      // every auth failure still land below.
+      if (subscriptionListenRefusal(error) !== undefined) return;
       this.status = "error";
       this.dispatchTypedEvent("statusChange", this.status);
       this.dispatchTypedEvent("error", error);