MCP server
The ALbuild MCP server gives AI agents a real Business Central runtime. Over the Model Context Protocol, an assistant can provision (or warm-reuse) a BC container, install dependencies from your feeds, publish apps and run the test suite against a live instance, then read structured pass/fail results and iterate.
It closes the gap between "it compiles" and "it actually runs and the tests pass against a specific BC version", the fast inner loop before CI.
One engine, no drift
Every tool is a thin, typed wrapper over a businessdev.ALbuild PowerShell module cmdlet, the same engine that powers the CI/CD pipeline tasks and the VS Code extension. Compilation is not its job (that's the AL compiler / AL MCP); the MCP does runtime validation. CI remains the authoritative gate.
Why
A full CI pipeline takes 15+ minutes. The MCP keeps a warm BC container and iterates
deploy → test in well under two minutes, so an agent (or you) can fix a failing test and re-run in
seconds. Container operations are Windows + Docker only: Business Central images are Windows-only,
so the remote HTTP transport is the only way a Mac developer or agent gets real BC runtime validation.
For a narrower question, there is something faster
The MCP loop is the fastest way to answer "does it run against a real BC?". It is not the fastest
way to answer "what does this expression evaluate to?". For that,
albuild probe interprets AL locally in a fraction of a second, with no container
at all. Probe is CLI-only and deliberately not an MCP tool: it answers a different question, and
an agent should reach for it first and fall back to the MCP loop when the answer depends on the real
platform.
Transports
One binary, two transports, chosen at start:
| Transport | Start | Use |
|---|---|---|
| stdio | npx -y @365businessdev/albuild-mcp | Local agent on a Windows box with Docker (Claude Code, the VS Code extension, Cursor). |
| Streamable HTTP | albuild-mcp --http | A shared Windows Server; remote agents (OpenClaw, Mac Claude Code) over LAN/Tailscale with a per-agent bearer token. |
How AL developers get it
| You use… | How the MCP shows up |
|---|---|
| VS Code (Copilot agent mode) | The ALbuild VS Code extension contributes the albuild MCP server automatically, no manual config. |
| Claude Code (CLI / VS Code) | A small .mcp.json in your repo points at npx @365businessdev/albuild-mcp. |
| OpenClaw / a Mac agent | Connect over Streamable HTTP to a shared Windows MCP host with a bearer token. |
All three run the same npm package, @365businessdev/albuild-mcp.
See the step-by-step guide to set up any of them.
Architecture
Code
The agent never needs Docker or PowerShell itself, only the host does. A remote agent transports its
built .app files to the host as base64 (see Tools → remote flow).
Licensing
The MCP server is free and published under the MIT license. The ALbuild paid tier is enforced in the PowerShell module it calls, not in the MCP. See Licensing & Tiers.
Next steps
- Get started: install and wire up VS Code, Claude Code, or a remote HTTP host, then run the inner loop.
- Tools reference: every tool, the async job model, the remote app/dependency flow, per-agent scoping and governance.