TYPO3 MCP: What Is the Model Context Protocol and How Do You Use It?
MCP lets an AI assistant work inside your TYPO3, but what does that look like on the first day? This episode starts with one plain question about the page tree. The assistant answers it with one read-only tool call, and you check the answer in the backend and on the website.
The prompt
Which pages are under Products?
Read-only. Ask it in the assistant you connected to AI Foundation
What does the assistant do?
- Ask in your own words: which pages are under Products?
- The assistant picks one MCP tool from AI Foundation and reads the page tree. It changes nothing.
- It answers with the pages it found: nine English pages and six German translations.
- You check the answer in the TYPO3 page tree and on the website, page by page.
How do I check it and put it back?
Nothing to put back: a question only reads. Start every new connection this way, then move on to a change you can check and undo. Episode 7 shows the first changes and the undo.
What do I need?
AI Foundation (free) and an MCP-capable assistant.
What can the assistant not do for you?
- pages_tree has no language filter: it lists translations next to their originals and counts both, so the assistant has to tell the languages apart.
- Since AI Foundation 2.0, a batch written with records_apply can run as a dry run first and be taken back in full with records_undo. Check every change in the backend and on the page.
- Relation fields such as categories and tags are not written by the MCP tools today.
Questions about this episode
What does this video show?
One plain question, "Which pages are under Products?", answered by an AI assistant through a single read-only MCP call, then checked in the TYPO3 backend and on the website of our demo install.
How long did the answer take?
14.6 seconds on our demo install, against 5 steps by hand in the backend. The call only reads, so nothing on the site changed.
What do I need to try it?
AI Foundation, which is free and open source, and an assistant that can connect to a remote MCP server. The guides for each assistant show the setup.
Transcript of the video
- 0:00MCP in Practice for TYPO3 · Episode 1: TYPO3 MCP explained: what it is, what it changes, how to begin
- 0:02One question, in plain words.
- 0:04Claude asks our demo TYPO3 through MCP. The wait is sped up.
- 0:07The answer: 3 sections and 6 product pages, 9 pages in all.
- 0:10One read-only MCP call: the page tree. Nothing is changed.
- 0:12Tents and its two tents have no German version yet.
- 0:14Now check it in TYPO3.
- 0:15Same tree in the TYPO3 backend: E-Bikes, Tents and Jackets.
- 0:19Three e-bikes, two tents, one jacket: 9 pages, as the answer says.
- 0:24The Records module shows each page with its translations.
- 0:28E-Bikes and Jackets have a German version. Tents does not, yet.
- 0:33The backend matches the answer, down to the missing German tents.
- 0:36Nothing was changed: the call only read the page tree.
- 0:40On the English website, the Products menu shows all three sections.
- 0:45The German menu has no Tents, just as the answer said.
- 0:5014.6 seconds from prompt to answer, instead of 5 steps by hand.
- 0:52All episodes: t3planet.de/en/blog/typo3-mcp-in-practice/
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