AI Assistants (MCP)

Connect Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client to VARIO Cloud and let an AI assistant explore the live REST API, VQL fields, batch processing and print layouts of your tenant while you build.

VARIO Cloud ships its own MCP server. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the open standard AI tools use to call external systems. Install the MCP-Server app and any MCP client — Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Gemini CLI, ChatGPT, LM Studio, n8n — can read and, if you allow it, write ERP data of your tenant through more than 50 curated tools.

For developers this means your coding assistant no longer guesses: it asks your tenant for the exact endpoint contract, the field paths of a query source or the running version of a print layout, and tests a VQL statement before you put it into code.

How end users connect an assistant, pick an access level and revoke keys is described in the user manual: MCP-Server (German).

Connect your assistant

1. Install the MCP-Server app in the Admin-Center of your tenant — ideally a test or development tenant.
2. Open user settings → MCP-Server, choose your client, an access level and the wiki scope, and click Verbinden.
3. Copy the generated configuration. It contains the server URL and a personal API key, which is shown only once.

The server speaks streamable HTTP and authenticates with a bearer header. For Claude Code the generated snippet looks like this:

claude mcp add --transport http vario-cloud <server-url> \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <api-key>"

Any other client that supports remote MCP servers over HTTP works the same way: server URL plus Authorization: Bearer <api-key>.

The key acts as you. It carries your user's permissions for one year. Use a read-only key for exploring, keep keys out of repositories, and revoke them under Meine MCP-Zugriffs-Token when you no longer need them.

Access levels

Level	Tools the key sees
Nur lesen	Search, fetch, queries, VQL, API exploration, guides — no write tool is registered
Schreiben mit Bestätigung	Additionally all write tools; destructive actions return a preview first and run only after confirmation
Autonom schreiben	Write tools without the confirmation step — for supervised automations only

Write levels require the Plus plan or higher. The wiki is a separate axis: a key can add the wiki tools or be restricted to the wiki only. The tool list a client receives always mirrors the key's rights, so an assistant cannot call what it does not see.

Tools that help while you build

You want to …	Tool	What it does
Find an endpoint and its payload	explore_api	Live OpenAPI introspection of your tenant: search endpoints, show parameters, required fields, enums and custom fields of a schema
Call an endpoint no curated tool covers	call_api / call_api_write	Validates path, parameters and body against the spec before sending; writes show a field diff first
Find query sources and exact field paths	list_query_sources, get_query_fields	Enumerates groups, templates and fields at runtime — the approach recommended in VQL
Test a query	query_list, execute_vql	Structured list queries with filters and aggregates, or a raw VQL statement
Look up platform knowledge	get_guide	Built-in guides: VQL reference, rd{}/rdt{} dates, document workflow, batch scripting, import mapping, wiki, print layouts, output modules
Run or debug a batch process	list_batch_templates, run_batch, get_batch_run	Lists templates and import target fields, starts a run with preview and violations, returns the result
Work on print layouts	list_reports, get_report_jrxml, update_report_jrxml, create_report, check_report	Reads and edits JRXML, copies system layouts, lints them and dry-runs every query against a real record
Open a record in the UI	get_link	Builds a deep link into VARIO Cloud

Beyond that the server offers business tools — documents, accounts, articles, prices, listings, CRM, wiki — plus three agents (master data audit, accounting hygiene, reorder run), interactive MCP App views and ready-made prompts.

explore_api answers what to send, get_query_fields answers which path to query. They are not interchangeable: REST payloads and VQL field paths come from different catalogues.

Guard rails

• Your permissions apply. Every ERP call runs under the rights of the user who created the key.
• Preview → confirm. With Schreiben mit Bestätigung, destructive writes return a preview first; nothing is written before the client confirms.
• Undo. undo_last_action reverses the most recent reversible write — finalizing a document, wiki changes, print layout changes and PUT/PATCH calls through call_api_write. Creations, master data tool writes and batch runs are not reversible.
• Blocked areas. The generic API tools cannot touch secrets and credentials, users and roles, apps, system settings and licences, server-side scripting or the wiki. Imports only run through run_batch.
• Cancellation. A cancelled request stops before the next ERP call; a write already in flight completes, so no record is left half-changed.
• Audit and rate limits. Every call is logged in the app's protocol against the key. Each key has its own rate limit on top of the API rate limit.

Protocol support

The server is stateless and supports both the 2025 protocol revisions and the 2026-07-28 revision per request, including tool annotations, structured output, prompts, resources and MCP Apps (ui:// resources) for clients that render them.

FAQ

Does the MCP server replace the REST API?

No. It sits on top of the REST API and is meant for AI assistants. Production integrations should call the REST API directly with an App's credentials.

Which tenant should I connect my coding assistant to?

A test or development tenant. With a write key the assistant changes real data, and batch runs cannot be undone.

Why does my assistant only see read tools?

The key was created with Nur lesen, your user lacks the right to grant write access, or the tenant is below the Plus plan.