MCP Quickstart

The SAP Developers site exposes a hosted Model Context Protocol (MCP) server so your AI client — Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any MCP-compatible tool — can search tutorials, read missions, and query the knowledge graph directly. No SDK, no scraping.

Phase 1 is anonymous and read-only. There's no sign-in and no API key. The approuter's per-IP throttle still applies, so treat it as a shared resource.

Available services

Three CDS services are mounted under /mcp/* using @cap-js/mcp@1.1.1 over the Streamable HTTP transport (MCP protocol version 2025-06). Each service exposes two auto-generated tools (describe, query) plus one tool per CDS action.

Service	Mount	Curated tools
SearchService	`/mcp/search`	`search_tutorials`, `list_missions`, `get_mission`, `get_tutorial`
HomepageService	`/mcp/homepage`	`get_recent_news`, `get_recent_videos`
KnowledgeGraphService	`/mcp/graph`	`kg_prerequisites`, `kg_what_to_learn_next`

One-liners:

search_tutorials — full-text search across published tutorials.
list_missions — enumerate curated learning missions.
get_mission — fetch a mission's ordered tutorial list by slug.
get_tutorial — fetch a single tutorial's metadata and rendered steps.
get_recent_news — recent SAP Developer News episodes shown on the homepage.
get_recent_videos — recent SAP Developers YouTube videos shown on the homepage.
kg_prerequisites — concepts you should already know before this tutorial.
kg_what_to_learn_next — recommended follow-on tutorials from the knowledge graph.

Full parameter reference: docs/developers/reference/mcp-server.md.

Base URLs

Production: https://developers.sap.com (cutover end of July 2026)
Dev: ask your admin for the current dev route

Replace <base> in the examples below with the appropriate URL.

Claude Desktop

Edit claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\):

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sap-developers-search": {
      "url": "<base>/mcp/search"
    },
    "sap-developers-homepage": {
      "url": "<base>/mcp/homepage"
    },
    "sap-developers-graph": {
      "url": "<base>/mcp/graph"
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. The tools appear in the tools picker.

Claude Code

Add a .mcp.json at the root of your project:

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sap-developers-search": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "<base>/mcp/search"
    },
    "sap-developers-homepage": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "<base>/mcp/homepage"
    },
    "sap-developers-graph": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "<base>/mcp/graph"
    }
  }
}

Older stdio-only clients

Clients that only speak stdio (older Claude Desktop builds, custom scripts) can bridge through mcp-remote:

bash

npm install -g mcp-remote

Then in your client config:

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sap-developers-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "<base>/mcp/search"]
    }
  }
}

Repeat the block for /mcp/homepage and /mcp/graph as needed.

Transport notes

The server speaks Streamable HTTP. Clients may send Accept: application/json or Accept: text/event-stream. JSON-only clients get JSON responses; SSE-capable clients get streaming responses when appropriate. You don't need to configure this — MCP clients negotiate it.

Troubleshooting

initialize returns 401. You hit /mcp-auth/* by mistake. That namespace is reserved for Phase 2 authenticated tools; use /mcp/* in Phase 1.
tools/list returns an empty array. Wrong service path. Each service is mounted separately — /mcp/search, /mcp/homepage, /mcp/graph. There is no aggregate /mcp root.
First response is slow (5–15s). Cold start. The CAP backend spins down when idle. Subsequent requests are fast.
Nothing returns and no error. Anonymous IP throttle. Back off and retry.

Phase 2 adds authenticated tools under /mcp-auth/* — your tutorial progress, events, and personalized recommendations. To use them, sign in with your SAP universal ID via OAuth.

If your Claude Desktop build uses native OAuth, it may fail with does not support dynamic client registration — the same XSUAA/DCR limitation described in the Claude Code section below. XSUAA requires a pre-registered client, so clients that insist on RFC 7591 self-registration cannot connect directly. If you hit this, bridge through mcp-remote with the pre-registered client_id (see the Claude Code section), or use a PAT.

For builds that accept a pre-registered client, bridge through mcp-remote:

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sap-developers-auth": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "mcp-remote", "<base>/mcp-auth/api",
        "--static-oauth-client-info", "{\"client_id\":\"sb-tutorials!t676072\"}"
      ]
    }
  }
}

On first connection mcp-remote opens a browser tab for consent (PKCE, no client secret required). The endpoints are discovered automatically from <base>/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server; you supply only the client_id. After approval, the token is cached and refreshed silently.

Available authenticated tools (DeveloperService + HomepageService):

Tool	What it does
`get_my_tutorials`	Your in-progress and completed tutorials
`get_my_missions`	Your mission progress
`get_my_events`	Your registered upcoming events
`get_my_completed_steps`	Completed step numbers for a specific tutorial
`get_tutorial_step`	Full HTML content of a tutorial step
`complete_step`	Mark a step done
`reset_tutorial_progress`	Reset all progress on a tutorial
`get_my_recommended_tutorials`	Persona-ranked tutorial recommendations
`get_my_recommended_missions`	Persona-ranked mission recommendations

Mint a PAT: open /admin-ui/#pats and use the Mint action, or call the mint endpoint documented in mcp-server.md. The token is shown once at mint time — copy it immediately.

Claude Code's native type: http OAuth does NOT work against this server. Its built-in OAuth client requires Dynamic Client Registration (RFC 7591) — it tries to POST to a registration_endpoint to self-register. XSUAA does not support DCR; OAuth clients must be pre-registered. Pointing Claude Code's native HTTP client at /mcp-auth/api fails with SDK auth failed: Incompatible auth server: does not support dynamic client registration. Use mcp-remote (below), which accepts a pre-registered client_id, or use a PAT (simplest for Claude Code — no browser flow).

Bridge through mcp-remote, which performs the OAuth 2.1 authorization-code + PKCE handshake against the pre-registered public client and forwards the bearer to /mcp-auth/api:

bash

npm install -g mcp-remote

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sap-developers-auth": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y", "mcp-remote", "<base>/mcp-auth/api",
        "--static-oauth-client-info", "{\"client_id\":\"sb-tutorials!t676072\"}"
      ]
    }
  }
}

sb-tutorials!t676072 is the XSUAA-generated public client for the tutorials application (XSUAA auto-creates exactly one sb-<xsappname>!<instance-suffix> client per instance — there is no separately-named MCP client). To confirm the current id for your environment, read the bound credentials: cf env tutorials-srv → VCAP_SERVICES.xsuaa[0].credentials.clientid. The flow uses PKCE with no client secret. On first run, mcp-remote opens your browser for the SAP universal-ID consent flow; after approval the token is cached in ~/.mcp-auth/ and refreshed silently. The server advertises its endpoints at <base>/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server, so mcp-remote discovers the authorize/token URLs automatically — you only supply the client_id.

Flag note: use --static-oauth-client-info '{"client_id":"…"}', not--static-oauth-client-id. The latter is not a real mcp-remote flag — it is silently ignored, so mcp-remote falls back to Dynamic Client Registration and fails with does not support dynamic client registration. Only --static-oauth-client-info (a JSON blob carrying client_id) short-circuits registration.

Simplest path for Claude Code: skip OAuth entirely and use a Personal Access Token. The PAT path needs no browser handshake and no pre-registered client.

Headless / CI with a Personal Access Token

For CI pipelines, scripts, and headless agents that cannot complete an interactive OAuth flow, use a Personal Access Token (PAT).

Mint a PAT:

Sign in to <base>/admin-ui/#pats as a user with the Tutorials MCP Users role collection.
Click New token, give it a name, select scopes (read for read-only tools; read write to allow complete_step and reset_tutorial_progress), set a TTL.
Copy the displayed token — it is shown once only. The server stores only a SHA-256 hash.

Configure your MCP client:

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sap-developers-auth": {
      "url": "<base>/mcp-pat/api",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer pat_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

PATs are validated by the mcp-pat-middleware in the CAP backend. An expired or revoked PAT returns 401.

Reading tutorial content as resources (Phase 3)

MCP clients can read tutorials, missions, and concepts as first-class resources:

tutorial://<slug> — a tutorial's metadata, step titles, and rendered HTML.
mission://<slug> — a mission and its ordered tutorials.
concept://<id> — a knowledge-graph concept and the tutorials that teach it.

List them with resources/list; read one with resources/read and the URI. Example (Claude Desktop): just ask "read tutorial://hcp-create-trial-account and summarize step 2".

Prompt templates (Phase 3)

The server ships reusable prompt templates, discoverable via prompts/list:

Prompt	Arguments	What it does
`summarize_mission_for_beginner`	`mission_slug`	Beginner-friendly mission summary
`generate_lab_exercise`	`tutorial_slug`, `step?`	A hands-on lab from a tutorial
`explain_concept`	`concept_id`	Explains a KG concept and its tutorials
`suggest_learning_path`	`from_slug`, `to_slug`	Ordered path between two tutorials

Invoke with prompts/get; the client fills the arguments.

What's next

Phase 3 is shipping. The /mcp/*, /mcp-auth/*, and /mcp-pat/* namespaces are stable — client configs will not need to change.

MCP Quickstart ​

Available services ​

Base URLs ​

Claude Desktop ​

Claude Code ​

Older stdio-only clients ​

Transport notes ​

Troubleshooting ​

Sign in with Claude Desktop (OAuth) ​

Sign in with Claude Code (OAuth via mcp-remote) ​

Headless / CI with a Personal Access Token ​

Reading tutorial content as resources (Phase 3) ​

Prompt templates (Phase 3) ​

What's next ​

MCP Quickstart

Available services

Base URLs

Claude Desktop

Claude Code

Older stdio-only clients

Transport notes

Troubleshooting

Sign in with Claude Desktop (OAuth)

Sign in with Claude Code (OAuth via mcp-remote)

Headless / CI with a Personal Access Token

Reading tutorial content as resources (Phase 3)

Prompt templates (Phase 3)

What's next