Umbraco CMS Developer MCP for Umbraco 16

It's a complete implementation that brings comprehensive API coverage and intelligent tooling to every Umbraco developer using AI assistants.

In developing Umbraco MCP, we’ve seen the benefits of dividing the project into multiple MCPs, each tailored to specific users and use cases. The Umbraco CMS Developer MCP marks the completion of the MCP designed for developers, bringing comprehensive API coverage and intelligent tooling to every Umbraco developer using AI assistants.

And this is just the beginning! An Editor MCP will follow soon, extending these capabilities to content editors and other user roles.

Complete API Parity

When we launched the beta, we provided approximately 200 tools covering core Umbraco functionality. Today, the Umbraco MCP Server includes 330+ tools spanning 36 endpoint groups - achieving near-complete parity with the Umbraco Management API. Some endpoints, such as elevating user permissions, are intentionally excluded for security reasons.

Every Umbraco entity type is now supported:

Core Content & Media:

• Document, Document Type, Document Blueprint, Document Version

• Media, Media Type, Temporary File

• Data Type

• Tag management

Internationalization:

• Language, Culture, Dictionary

Users & Security:

• User, User Group

• Member, Member Type, Member Group

Advanced Features:

• Webhook management

• Redirect Management

• Relation Type

• Health Check

• Log Viewer

• Examine management

Development Assets:

• Template, Partial View

• Stylesheet, Script

• Static File

System Administration:

• Server information

• Manifest management

• Models Builder

• Property Type

This comprehensive coverage means AI assistants can now perform virtually any backoffice task through a standardized MCP interface, from simple content creation to complex system administration.

Official Documentation

The Umbraco MCP Server is now fully documented on docs.umbraco.com, the official Umbraco documentation platform:

https://docs.umbraco.com/umbraco-cms/reference/developer-mcp

The documentation includes:

• Installation guides for multiple MCP hosts (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot)

• Configuration reference for authentication, tools and tools collections

• Tool reference documenting all included and excluded tools

• Best practices for context engineering and effective AI interactions

• Use cases showing real-world scenarios and workflows

• Key concepts explaining MCP and context engineering
  

This integration with Umbraco's official documentation ensures the MCP server receives the same level of professional documentation as the core CMS product.

Enhanced Media Creation Tool

The updated create-media tool now supports multiple standard upload methods and batch operations, making it significantly more flexible for AI-assisted workflows.

AI assistants can now create media from three different sources:

• File paths - For local development and CI/CD pipelines

• URLs - For importing from external sources

• Base64-encoded data - For small AI-generated or SVG images and seamless integration
  

The tool also supports batch operations, allowing multiple media items to be created in a single call - mixing different source types as needed. Media types are automatically detected based on file extensions, with support for Images, Files, Videos, Audio, and Vector Graphics.

File path uploads require explicit configuration via UMBRACO_ALLOWED_MEDIA_PATHS for security, while URL and base64 uploads work without additional setup.

Configuration Improvements

We've enhanced configuration management to better fit real-world development workflows:

.env File Support

The MCP server now loads configuration from .env files automatically, with support for custom file paths via the --env CLI argument.

All environment variables are supported:

• Connection settings (UMBRACO_CLIENT_ID, UMBRACO_CLIENT_SECRET, UMBRACO_BASE_URL)

• Tool filtering (UMBRACO_INCLUDE_TOOL_COLLECTIONS, UMBRACO_EXCLUDE_TOOL_COLLECTIONS)

• Security settings (UMBRACO_ALLOWED_MEDIA_PATHS)
  

CLI arguments override environment variables, providing maximum flexibility for different deployment scenarios.

Multi-Culture Content Support for documents

This MCP server now fully supports Umbraco's multi-culture content capabilities.

The original alpha and beta implementation hardcoded culture: null, making it impossible to create content for multilingual sites. The enhanced create-document tool now accepts an optional cultures parameter:

This creates document variants for each specified culture, allowing AI assistants to manage content across multiple languages. Combined with the complete Language and Culture endpoint groups, the MCP server is now fully equipped for international content management.

Data Type and Document Json Fragment Templates

Understanding the correct structure for complex Umbraco configurations has always been a challenge. To help AI assistants work more effectively, we've added dedicated template endpoints.

Rather than embedding large JSON examples directly in tool descriptions, the get-data-type-property-editor-template and get-document-property-value-template tools provide templates on-demand. This simple change reduces token consumption. AI assistants only fetch template details when they actually need them.

For example, when configuring a BlockList property editor:

The templates cover 30+ built in property editors native to Umbraco with correct configuration structures, sensible defaults, and usage notes - helping AI assistants provide correct configurations on the first attempt.

Currently, these templates are hard coded into the MCP server itself. However, we're working with the Umbraco CMS team to move this functionality directly into the Management API. This will add extension points allowing community property editor packages to register their own templates, making the system truly extensible for the entire Umbraco ecosystem.

Version Compatibility Checking: Safety First

Deploying an MCP server against a mismatched Umbraco version can lead to confusing errors and unexpected behavior. We've implemented automatic version compatibility checking that protects users from API incompatibilities.

On the first tool call, the MCP server checks the Umbraco instance version against its own major version. If there's a mismatch:

The first tool call is blocked, requiring a retry to proceed - ensuring users are fully aware of potential compatibility issues before making any changes. This non-intrusive approach balances safety with flexibility, allowing experienced users to proceed while protecting newcomers from mysterious failures.

Community Involvement

The Umbraco MCP Server is an open-source project hosted in the official Umbraco GitHub organization. We welcome:

• Feature Requests - Share your use cases and requirements

• Contributions - Submit PRs for bug fixes, new tools, or documentation improvements

• Feedback - Tell us what works and what doesn't

GitHub Repository: github.com/umbraco/umbraco-mcp

We can’t wait to see what you’ll build with the Umbraco CMS Developer MCP. This release marks an exciting step forward for developers working with AI in Umbraco, and we know you’ll create some truly epic things with it.

The Developer MCP for Umbraco 17 will follow shortly, bringing all these capabilities to the next long-term supported version of Umbraco.

As always, we encourage you to share your projects, feedback, and ideas with us and the Umbraco community, and don’t hesitate to contribute to this open-source project. Together, we’ll keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with Umbraco and AI.