ArcGIS MCP servers and AI agent skills

How AI connects to ArcGIS

An MCP server or skill can only do what ArcGIS lets programs do. ArcGIS exposes 4 automation interfaces:

• ArcPy (Python): ArcPy is the Python site package installed with ArcGIS Pro, giving access to every geoprocessing tool, the arcpy.mp module for maps and layouts in .aprx projects, and the Spatial and Network Analyst extensions. It only runs on Windows with a licensed Pro install, inside Pro's own conda environment (arcgispro-py3) or a clone of it. Both community MCP servers here are built on it. Documentation
• ArcGIS API for Python (Python): The arcgis package manages content, users and hosted layers in ArcGIS Online and Enterprise over REST, and runs on any operating system. It is the route for publishing, sharing and portal administration; one community server falls back to it for publishing because ArcPy's publishing calls need Pro's main thread. Documentation
• ArcGIS Pro SDK for .NET (.NET): Add-ins written in C# can control the ArcGIS Pro interface itself, such as opening map views, which ArcPy cannot do. Some community MCP bridges for ArcGIS Pro are built as add-ins instead of on ArcPy. Documentation
• ArcGIS REST APIs (REST API): Feature, map, geocoding and routing services are all reachable over HTTP. Esri's hosted Location Services MCP wraps a subset of these location services. Documentation

What Esri offers

Esri publishes MCP for ArcGIS Location Services, a hosted server it labels beta, plus an Apache-2.0 repository of agent plugins for ArcGIS developers that connects to a hosted documentation MCP. Inside its own products, Esri offers AI assistants that organisation administrators switch on in ArcGIS Online, including an ArcGIS Pro assistant, Arcade and Notebooks assistants, most still marked beta. Esri's early-adopter site says MCP access to ArcGIS Online, Enterprise and Location Platform is being worked on.

Checked 4 Nov 2026. Sources: MCP for ArcGIS Location Services (beta), Configure AI assistants, ArcGIS Online documentation, MCP in ArcGIS, Esri Early Adopter Community, Esri/esri-developer-agent-skills

What you can do with ArcGIS and AI

• Geocode a list of site addresses, reverse-geocode survey points, or get elevations and driving routes between project locations through Esri's hosted beta server.
• Buffer, clip, dissolve or overlay feature classes in a file geodatabase with ArcPy, and write results to a scratch geodatabase.
• Derive slope, aspect and hillshade from a DEM, or run zonal statistics and hydrology tools with the Spatial Analyst extension.
• Run closest-facility, service-area or origin-destination analyses on a network dataset.
• Build a layout in an .aprx project and export it to PDF, or publish a layer to ArcGIS Online as a hosted feature service.
• Write an ArcGIS Maps SDK or ArcGIS API for Python app with Esri's own skills and current developer documentation.

Taken from the listings' own documentation. Check each listing for exactly what it supports.

Installing

The listings here document setup for Claude (custom connector), Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, GitHub Copilot CLI, Goose, Kiro, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Postman, VS Code, VS Code (GitHub Copilot) and Xcode. Install steps, copied from each project's own documentation, are on each listing's page. Most ArcGIS integrations run on your own computer next to ArcGIS, so you need ArcGIS installed and licensed on the same machine unless the listing says otherwise.