How to Enhance Your AL Development With the AL MCP Server
UG Expert Brad Prendergast walks through how Business Central users can enhance AL development with the AL MCP server.
Key Takeaways
- Overview: The AL MCP server is a standalone model context protocol server that provides tools for building, compiling, publishing, and additional options for AEL projects. This Microsoft Learn article covers system requirements, setup instructions, and available tools for the AL MCP server. The system requirements include the .NET 8 runtime, having the AL Language extension installed, and network access to a Business Central environment. For this to work, users may need to add the AL tool executable folder to the path for it to find the command.
- Creating and configuring: Brad demonstrates setting up Visual Studio Code (VS Code) by creating a new AEL extension. He notes key elements, such as adding the AL tool executable folder to the path to find the command. Demonstrating how to configure this, he walks through creating an AL MCP server, using the command “View Command MCP Add Server” in VS Code, and configuring it for a specific project. Users can navigate to view the server’s output, configuration, and available tools in VS Code.
- AL MCP tools: Key tools available with the AL MCP server include capabilities to add projects, log in, build, compile, and download symbols. There is also an overlap between AL executable tools and AL MCP server tools.
- Developing, using, and publishing the extension: Applying GitHub Copilot, Brad shows how users can apply the AL symbol search to create the necessary code for new fields. Because the results may vary, developers may need to fine-tune prompts or create separate agents for different tasks. GitHub Copilot can build a project and verify that everything compiles without errors. Brad further demonstrates how to publish the app using the AL MCP server, which runs the AEL publish tool, and how to use the new field in the Business Central environment.
