Set up the Experience Manager Guides MCP server

MCP server endpoint

Experience Manager Guides exposes its MCP capabilities through a single HTTP endpoint.

To discover the current tool list for your environment, ask your assistant:

List all Experience Manager Guides tools available from the author https://author-pXXXX-eXXXX.adobeaemcloud.com and describe what they do.

Request access for your organization

Access to the Experience Manager Guides MCP server is opt-in per organization. Before anyone in your organization can connect:

• Experience Manager Guides must be enabled on your AEM as a Cloud Service environment.
• Your organization’s IMS Organization ID (Org ID) must be allow-listed by the Adobe Guides team.

To request access, contact your Adobe Customer Success team.

Setup

You do not install anything locally. You point your client at the server URL and authenticate through the Adobe IMS sign-in flow.

Anthropic Claude

Follow the official walkthrough: Set up Claude for AEM MCP. When adding the custom connector, use the Experience Manager Guides endpoint:

https://mcp.adobeaemcloud.com/adobe/mcp/guides

Cursor / Visual Studio Code

Add the server to your MCP configuration. For Cursor, add it to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aem-guides": {
      "url": "https://mcp.adobeaemcloud.com/adobe/mcp/guides"
    }
  }
}

For clients that only support local (stdio) servers, bridge to the remote endpoint with mcp-remote:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aem-guides": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.adobeaemcloud.com/adobe/mcp/guides"]
    }
  }
}

You can connect supported AI clients to an Experience Manager Guides on-premises instance using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). After you establish the connection, the client can access the Experience Manager Guides operations available to your AEM user account.

All operations are performed using your AEM identity and permissions. The connected client can view or modify only the content and resources that your AEM account is authorized to access.

Authentication uses OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code flow with Proof Key for Code Exchange (PKCE). You authenticate with AEM when you connect a client for the first time. After successful authentication, the connection refreshes access tokens automatically.

You can connect the following clients:

Prerequisites

Before you connect a client, work with your AEM administrator to verify the following configuration:

1. Verify that the MCP feature is deployed.: Ensure that the MCP feature is deployed and running on your Experience Manager Guides instance.

2. Configure the Granite base URL.: In the AEM Web Console Configuration Manager (/system/console/configMgr), locate the Experience Manager Guides OAuth PKCE Token Wrapper configuration and verify that the Granite base URL is configured. If the Granite base URL isn’t configured correctly, the client can’t establish the connection.

3. Configure the Day CQ Link Externalizer.: In the AEM Web Console Configuration Manager, locate the Day CQ Link Externalizer configuration and verify that the external author URL points to the correct AEM author instance. The external author URL is used during OAuth discovery. An incorrect URL can prevent the client from completing the connection.

   For more details, view Configure MCP connection settings for AEM Guides On-Premise

4. Obtain the MCP server URL.: The MCP server URL uses the following format:

   code language-none
   http(s)://<AEM-HOST>/bin/guides/v1/mcp/sse

   note
   NOTE
   Use the complete SSE endpoint when configuring a client. Don’t add a trailing slash to the URL.

   For example:

   Internal AEM author instance:

   code language-none
   http://10.42.42.20:4502/bin/guides/v1/mcp/sse

   Public AEM author instance:

   code language-none
   https://author.example.com/bin/guides/v1/mcp/sse

5. Verify your AEM credentials and permissions.: You must have a valid account for the AEM instance. Use the same credentials that you use to sign in to the AEM user interface. The operations available through MCP are determined by the permissions assigned to this account.

Connect Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop supports Desktop Extensions (.mcpb). The Experience Manager Guides MCP extension packages the connection configuration so that you don’t need to manually edit an MCP JSON configuration.

1. Obtain the aem-guides-mcp.mcpb extension file.

2. Open Claude Desktop and navigate to Settings > Extensions.

3. Install aem-guides-mcp.mcpb by double-clicking the file or dragging it into the Extensions window.

   Adobe Experience Manager Guides MCP is displayed in the Installation dialog.

4. Select Install.

5. In the Experience Manager Guides MCP Server URL field, enter the complete SSE endpoint for your AEM instance.

   For example:

   code language-none
   http://<AEM-HOST>:4502/bin/guides/v1/mcp/sse

6. Select Save and ensure that the extension is enabled.

Connect ChatGPT

You can configure the Experience Manager Guides MCP server as a custom connector in ChatGPT.

1. Verify that your MCP server is available at a public HTTPS URL in the following format:

   code language-none
   https://<PUBLIC-AEM-HOST>/bin/guides/v1/mcp/sse

   Open the endpoint in a browser and verify that you can reach the host without a certificate warning or connection error.

2. In ChatGPT, open Settings > Plugins.

   note
   NOTE
   Connector availability depends on your ChatGPT plan and workspace configuration. Your workspace administrator might need to enable custom or developer connectors.

3. Select the option to add or create a plugin.

4. Specify the connector details:

   • Name: Enter Experience Manager Guides, or another descriptive name.
   • MCP Server URL: Enter the public HTTPS SSE endpoint.
   • Authentication: Select OAuth.

   You don’t need to provide an OAuth client ID or client secret. The MCP server supports automatic client registration.

5. Create the connector.

Connect Cursor

Configure the Experience Manager Guides MCP server in Cursor by adding the server details to the MCP configuration.

1. In Cursor, navigate to Customize > MCPs > New.

   Cursor opens the ~/.cursor/mcp.json configuration file.

2. Add the Experience Manager Guides MCP server configuration.

   For example:

   code language-json
   { "mcpServers": { "aem-guides": { "url": "http://10.42.34.176:4502/bin/guides/v1/mcp/sse", "type": "http" } } }

3. Replace the example URL with the MCP SSE endpoint for your AEM instance.

4. Save the configuration.

5. Enable the configured MCP server.