diff --git a/docs/_client/transports.md b/docs/_client/transports.md
index a8a47643..a30259c8 100644
--- a/docs/_client/transports.md
+++ b/docs/_client/transports.md
@@ -64,7 +64,14 @@ The stdio transport automatically handles:
 
 Use the `MCP::Client::HTTP` transport to interact with MCP servers using simple HTTP requests.
 
-You'll need to add `faraday` as a dependency in order to use the HTTP transport layer. Add `event_stream_parser` as well if the server uses SSE (`text/event-stream`) responses:
+You'll need to add `faraday` as a dependency in order to use the HTTP transport layer, and `event_stream_parser`
+to read SSE (`text/event-stream`) responses.
+Whether a response is JSON or SSE is the server's choice, made for each response, and a client must accept both,
+so a client written for arbitrary servers needs both gems. This SDK's own server picks SSE by default and always
+does on the modern lifecycle, and the listening stream that `on_elicitation` and `on_sampling` open is SSE as well.
+`event_stream_parser` is loaded on the first SSE response, so it can be left out only against a server known to
+answer with JSON alone, such as this SDK's server in [JSON response mode](/server/transports/#json-response-mode)
+serving handshake-lifecycle clients, and only while no listening stream is opened:
 
 ```ruby
 gem "mcp"
diff --git a/docs/installation.md b/docs/installation.md
index f93c6e5d..91aaee1a 100644
--- a/docs/installation.md
+++ b/docs/installation.md
@@ -38,6 +38,16 @@ $ gem install mcp
 You may need to add additional dependencies depending on which features you wish to access. For example, the HTTP client transport requires the `faraday` gem:
 
 ```ruby
-gem "mcp"
 gem "faraday", ">= 2.0"
 ```
+
+Reading SSE (`text/event-stream`) responses needs `event_stream_parser` as well.
+Whether a response is JSON or SSE is the server's choice, made for each response, and this SDK's own server picks SSE by default,
+so a client written for arbitrary servers needs both gems:
+
+```ruby
+gem "faraday", ">= 2.0"
+gem "event_stream_parser", ">= 1.0"
+```
+
+The [Transports](/client/transports/#http-transport-layer) page describes the one setup where `faraday` alone is enough.