mcp-server

The MCP server for abap2UI5 — gives any AI coding agent (Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, or any MCP client) the full abap2UI5 development loop, without an SAP system:

examples -> app_guide -> validate_view + screenshot_view -> deploy_app -> build_backend -> run_app -> pitfalls
(has somebody  (how an app  (SECONDS, no system:        (write ABAP,  (transpile      (boot headless,  (what a green
 built it       is built)    is the view legal,          lint)         to Node)        errors +         run still
 already?)                   and what does it LOOK like)                               SCREENSHOT)      does not prove)

The agent writes an ABAP class, validates the view and looks at a picture of it in seconds, deploys it, boots it in a real browser and looks at the running app — then iterates. Everything runs locally on infrastructure that already guards the abap2UI5 ecosystem in CI: the abaplint transpiler + open-abap runtime, the framework's express shim, the samples-controls build and boot gates, and the linter validation core.

Documentation

→ The MCP server, in full — what MCP means here, the three setup levels and what each one buys, how to register the server with your client, every tool with what the agent gets from it, and the loop they are meant to be used in.

→ Building with AI — the whole AI setup in rising order of effort. This server is the top rung; the cheaper ones matter first.

Quick start

Level 1 — validate_view and screenshot_view, the two tools most work happens at (~3 MB, a minute):

git clone https://github.com/abap2UI5/linter        # AI_VIEW_CHECK_HOME
cd linter && npm ci

The server itself is on npm, so it needs no checkout. Register it with Claude Code:

claude mcp add abap2ui5 -- npx --yes @abap2ui5/mcp-server

(The install is ~45 MB, 19 MB of it a Playwright driver only run_app uses — paid on the first start, cached after. From a checkout instead: git clone https://github.com/abap2UI5/mcp-server && cd mcp-server && npm ci, then claude mcp add abap2ui5 -- node /path/to/mcp-server/server.mjs.)

Cursor, VS Code and Claude Desktop take the standard stdio shape — the documentation has the JSON, and the two further levels (the sample catalogues and deploying, then the headless build-and-boot loop). A tool whose prerequisites are missing answers with a message naming what it needs; the server starts either way.

The abap2UI5 VS Code extension registers this server for you, and adds a second one of its own for the tools that need a real SAP system.

Tools

Tool	What it does
capabilities	Whether abap2UI5 can express a UI5 feature at all, from the verified capability map
app_guide	How to build an app, live from the framework checkout
scaffold_app	The files a new project starts from, live from app-template; { class: … } renames throughout, sidecar CLSNAME included
examples	Search the three sample catalogues — answers with a class to read, never a snippet to trust
generation_rules	The rulebook for porting a UI5 demo-kit sample into samples-controls
pitfalls	The defects a green run does not catch: { area: "abap" } and { area: "view" }
scope_of	In/out-of-scope verdict for a UI5 control
validate_view	The linter's gates in seconds, judged by your project's own abap2ui5lint.jsonc
screenshot_view	See the view in seconds — no build, no backend
deploy_app	Write the class + abapGit sidecar into the gitignored sandbox, then abaplint it
build_backend	Rebuild the transpiled Node backend; incremental after the first full build
run_app	Boot an app headless: status, real page errors, and a screenshot
backend	status / start / stop / restart of the local express backend
remove_app	Delete a dev app from the sandbox, or list the deployed ones

screenshot_view and run_app answer the same question at three orders of magnitude apart: the first photographs the reconstructed view with no backend, the second the running app after a build. Most iterations should end at the first.

Notes

• Dev sandbox: deployed apps land in the samples-controls checkout's gitignored src/zz_dev/ — nothing an agent deploys can leak into a commit.
• Port: the backend listens on 3000 (A2UI5_MCP_PORT overrides).
• Timeouts: every spawned child is killed (whole process tree) when it exceeds its limit — lint/scope 5 min, build 30 min by default; A2UI5_MCP_LINT_TIMEOUT_MS, A2UI5_MCP_SCOPE_TIMEOUT_MS and A2UI5_MCP_BUILD_TIMEOUT_MS override (values in ms).
• UI5 sources are served from the samples-controls checkout's @openui5 packages, so booting needs no network. The built theme CSS is not in those packages — with network access it loads from the CDN (styled screenshots); without, apps render unstyled but structurally complete. A2UI5_MCP_OFFLINE=1 forces the hermetic behaviour.
• Chromium: uses the Playwright-managed browser; if absent, falls back to a system chromium (A2UI5_MCP_CHROMIUM overrides the executable path).
• If you set this up earlier: the corpus repository was ai-demokit, then abap2UI5-api, and is samples-controls today. Nothing needs changing — an existing checkout is still found under any of the three directory names, and AI_DEMOKIT_HOME is still read alongside SAMPLES_CONTROLS_HOME.
• Real-system deployment stays what it is today: abapGit. This server is the inner dev loop; the real-system half lives in the VS Code extension, whose own MCP server exposes it as run_app_on_system. Both servers are registered in the same editor window, which is why that tool is not called run_app.

Working on this repository

npm ci
npm test

AGENTS.md carries the conventions, CONTRIBUTING.md and RELEASING.md the rest of the workflow.