FAQ

This guide is intended for three types of audiences:

1. Agentic developers who build ArcGIS applications and want their coding agents to use current, official ArcGIS guidance.
2. Agentic users who use AI agents to explore ArcGIS technologies and documentation.
3. AI frameworks that need help resolving official, up-to-date ArcGIS developer documentation that is not easily available through their existing retrieval capabilities.

The ArcGIS agentic developer toolkit The ArcGIS agentic developer toolkit is a collection of components, including an MCP server and agent skills, that support AI-assisted development for building ArcGIS applications. Learn more is a set of tools that helps AI agents perform development tasks with ArcGIS SDKs, APIs, and underlying technologies. The toolkit includes:

• Esri developer agent skills Esri developer agent skills are reusable instructions that provide contextual guidance for agents to perform AI-assisted ArcGIS development tasks. Learn more : Reusable instructions that guide an agent through ArcGIS development tasks and follow technology-specific best practices.
• Esri MCP server for developer documentation The Esri MCP server for developer documentation is a core component of the ArcGIS agentic developer toolkit. It is hosted by Esri and provides tools that allow AI agents to search and retrieve official ArcGIS developer resources. Learn more : An Esri-hosted server that implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to connect AI clients to official ArcGIS developer documentation and resources.

Together, the agent skills and MCP server enable AI agents to access official ArcGIS developer documentation and follow best practices for development tasks.

Agent skills help the assistant apply ArcGIS guidance during planning and development. The MCP server helps your coding assistant find ArcGIS developer documentation.

The tools can search ArcGIS developer documentation and narrow a search using Esri Developer focus areas. Search results can include code samples, tutorials, guide topics, and API references.

An AI agent can generate ArcGIS code without agent skills or the MCP server, but it may rely on incomplete, outdated, or unrelated information. Connecting agent skills and the MCP server gives the agent direct access to official ArcGIS developer resources and technology-specific guidance during a conversation, including best practices. This can help the agent provide more accurate, relevant, and up-to-date recommendations and code.

Yes. Start with the Explore technology example. It will help you understand what ArcGIS APIs, SDKs, and services are available and pick the ones relevant to your project.

No. The toolkit’s MCP server only searches and returns information from public-facing ArcGIS developer documentation. Your coding agent can use that information to write application code, but requests made by the generated application go to the relevant ArcGIS service and require the authentication, privileges, and configuration documented for that service.

You can use it with MCP-compatible coding agents and IDEs that support Streamable HTTP. To view configuration instructions for some specific coding agents and agentic IDEs, go to Install and set up.

Not currently. The MCP server is available through an Esri-hosted URL using the Streamable HTTP transport protocol.

No. The agent skills in the toolkit are free to use. Any costs for your AI agent, IDE subscription, or other token usage are separate.

No. The MCP server in the toolkit is free to use. Any costs for your AI agent, IDE subscription, or other token usage are separate.

No. The agent skills in the toolkit do not require authentication. Your generated application still needs the credentials required by the ArcGIS products and services it uses.

No. The MCP server in the toolkit does not currently require an ArcGIS login or other credentials. Applications you build with help from the MCP server might require ArcGIS authentication, an API key, privileges, or an ArcGIS account depending on the products and services they use.

No. The toolkit does not have access to your ArcGIS account, credentials, or secrets, and it cannot create API keys or any developer credentials. Follow the relevant Esri documentation to create and configure credentials for your application.