Sitecore AI MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes two read tools over the SitecoreAI / XM Cloud Content Management GraphQL API:

Tool	What it does
get_item_detail	Fetch one item's full detail: id, name, path, template name, display name, all fields, children count
list_items	List an item's immediate children, optionally filtered by template

It runs over stdio, so any MCP client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, etc.) can launch it as a local subprocess. Authentication uses the OAuth 2.0 client-credentials grant, with an in-memory token manager that caches and proactively refreshes the access token before it expires.

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1. Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (uses the built-in global fetch).
• A Sitecore XM Cloud environment (or a self-hosted CM instance) whose Content Management GraphQL API is enabled.
• An OAuth client (client id + secret) that is authorised to call that API.

2. Install & build

npm install
npm run build

This compiles src/** to dist/**. The executable entrypoint is dist/index.js.

3. Configure environment variables

Copy the example file and fill in the values:

cp .env.example .env

Variable	Required	Description
SITECORE_API_URL	✅	Content Management GraphQL endpoint, e.g. https://<cm-host>/sitecore/api/authoring/graphql/v1
SITECORE_TOKEN_URL	✅	OAuth token endpoint (identity server), e.g. https://auth.sitecorecloud.io/oauth/token
SITECORE_CLIENT_ID	✅	OAuth client id
SITECORE_CLIENT_SECRET	✅	OAuth client secret
SITECORE_SCOPE	⬜	OAuth scope, if your identity server requires one
SITECORE_AUDIENCE	⬜	OAuth audience, if your identity server requires one

The server never logs the client secret or the access token. Errors are surfaced with a category (auth, forbidden, not_found, invalid_template, graphql, network, config) and a short, secret-free detail string.

Access policy (deny-by-default)

Every tool call passes through a path-based policy before any field values or children are read:

1. Zero-network deny — the well-known Sitecore protected roots (/sitecore/system, /sitecore/templates, /sitecore/layout) have fixed, public GUIDs, so a request for one is refused with no network call at all.
2. Path gate — for every other id, a minimal path-only lookup runs first, the policy decides, and only then is the item's content fetched. Anything outside the allow-list is denied by default; a denial surfaces as a [forbidden] tool error.

Variable	Default	Purpose
SITECORE_ALLOW_PATHS	/sitecore/content,/sitecore/media library	Readable path prefixes. Anything not matched is denied.
SITECORE_PROTECTED_PATHS	/sitecore/system,/sitecore/templates,/sitecore/layout	Blocked outright unless developer mode is on.
SITECORE_DEVELOPER_MODE	false	When true/1/yes/on, lifts the block on the protected areas.

Why block templates/system/layout by default: an agent that can read — and especially, once write tools exist, edit — a template can take down every page built on it with one plausible-looking change. Keep SITECORE_DEVELOPER_MODE off in any environment an agent reaches unsupervised, and turn it on only for a deliberate developer session.

Because the tools are keyed by item id (an opaque GUID), the id → path mapping for non-root items requires exactly one lightweight metadata lookup; the gate then runs before any content, field values, or (future) mutation is touched.

Where to generate the OAuth client id / secret

XM Cloud (Sitecore Cloud):

1. Sign in to the XM Cloud Deploy / Cloud Portal.
2. Open Credentials (Organization settings → Automation client credentials, or the environment's Developer settings).
3. Create a new client with the scope/role needed to read content via the Authoring/Content GraphQL API.
4. Copy the generated Client ID and Client Secret into .env.
5. The token endpoint for Sitecore Cloud is typically https://auth.sitecorecloud.io/oauth/token — set that as SITECORE_TOKEN_URL.

Self-hosted XM / CM instance:

1. Register an OAuth client in your Sitecore Identity Server configuration (a ClientCredentials grant client) with a client id and secret.
2. Grant it the API resource/scope for the GraphQL endpoint.
3. Use your identity server's token endpoint (e.g. https://<cm-host>/sitecore/api/identity/token or the IdentityServer /connect/token) as SITECORE_TOKEN_URL.

The exact GraphQL schema differs slightly between endpoints. This server targets the XM Cloud Authoring & Management GraphQL API shape (item(where: { itemId, language, version }), fields { nodes { name value } }, children { nodes / totalCount }). If your endpoint uses a different schema, adjust the queries in src/tools/getItemDetail.ts and src/tools/listItems.ts.

4. Register the server in an MCP client

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)

Location:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sitecore-ai": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:\\path\\to\\SItecoreAISimpleMCP\\dist\\index.js"],
      "env": {
        "SITECORE_API_URL": "https://<cm-host>/sitecore/api/authoring/graphql/v1",
        "SITECORE_TOKEN_URL": "https://auth.sitecorecloud.io/oauth/token",
        "SITECORE_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id",
        "SITECORE_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop; the two tools appear under the 🔌 tools menu.

Claude Code

claude mcp add sitecore-ai \
  --env SITECORE_API_URL=https://<cm-host>/sitecore/api/authoring/graphql/v1 \
  --env SITECORE_TOKEN_URL=https://auth.sitecorecloud.io/oauth/token \
  --env SITECORE_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id \
  --env SITECORE_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret \
  -- node C:\\path\\to\\SItecoreAISimpleMCP\\dist\\index.js

5. Usage examples

get_item_detail:

{ "itemId": "110D559F-DEA5-42EA-9C1C-8A5DF7E70EF9", "language": "en" }

list_items (optionally filtered by template):

{
  "parentId": "0DE95AE4-41AB-4D01-9EB0-67441B7C2450",
  "language": "en",
  "templateId": "76036F5E-CBCE-46D1-AF0A-4143F9B557AA"
}

GUIDs may be dashed, braced ({...}), or raw 32-hex — all forms are accepted.

6. Tests

npm test

Unit tests cover:

• Token manager — grant request shape, caching, proactive refresh before expiry, concurrent-refresh coalescing, invalidate(), and 401/network/config error handling (plus a check that the secret never leaks into errors).
• get_item_detail — field mapping, defaults, version passthrough, not-found handling, and input validation.
• list_items — child mapping, template filtering (GUID-form-insensitive), invalid-template detection, empty children, not-found, input validation, and policy enforcement (protected parent by id/path, per-child filtering).
• Access policy — allow-list matching, protected-area blocking, deny by default, sibling-prefix safety, developer-mode lifting the block, and fromEnv parsing.

Both tool suites mock the GraphQL client; the token-manager suite mocks fetch.

7. Project structure

src/
  index.ts                 # server entrypoint, registers tools over stdio
  sitecoreClient.ts        # GraphQL client wrapper (adds bearer token, 401 retry)
  itemPath.ts              # minimal id -> path lookup used by the policy gate
  policy.ts                # PathPolicy: deny-by-default allow-list + protected roots
  context.ts               # ToolContext = { client, policy }
  schemas.ts               # zod input schemas
  errors.ts                # SitecoreError + error categories
  auth/
    tokenManager.ts        # OAuth client-credentials fetch/cache/refresh
  tools/
    getItemDetail.ts       # get_item_detail implementation
    listItems.ts           # list_items implementation
tests/
  tokenManager.test.ts
  policy.test.ts
  getItemDetail.test.ts
  listItems.test.ts

License

MIT