TYPO3 MCP setup: install AI Foundation and switch on the MCP server

This TYPO3 MCP setup takes four steps: install AI Foundation with Composer, switch on its MCP server, connect your AI assistant with a sign-in in your browser (OAuth), and check that it answers.

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is the open standard an assistant such as Claude or Cursor uses to work inside TYPO3 through a set of tools. AI Foundation adds that MCP server to TYPO3, and it is free and open source, no licence key, no registration. Each step names the command or the backend path and what you should see afterwards, so you can check it on your own install. The screens below come from our demo install, and so does the first question at the end.

You set up TYPO3 MCP in four steps. Install AI Foundation with composer require nitsan/ns-t3af, run the extension setup and clear the caches. In AI Foundation, MCP Server, Advanced, make sure Enable MCP Server is ticked, so the status reads Online. Add the server URL ending in /mcp to your assistant and sign in through OAuth as a TYPO3 backend user. Then check it: /mcp refuses you without a token, OAuth Tokens lists the connection, and a first question gets an answer.

What MCP is, and what it changes for TYPO3 teams, is in our explainer on TYPO3 MCP. This post stays with the method.

Check these points before you run the first command:

The installation guide in our documentation lists the finer points, such as the recommended PHP version and the databases AI Foundation is tested with. Read it before you install on a production site.

The TYPO3 MCP installation is one Composer package. Run these three commands in the root of your TYPO3 project:

The first command adds AI Foundation, the second creates its database tables, and the third clears the caches. Reload the backend: the module menu now shows AI Universe, with AI Foundation below it. On an install without Composer, get the extension from the TYPO3 Extension Repository in the Extensions module, activate it and clear the caches.

There is nothing to activate afterwards: AI Foundation is free and open source, no licence key, no registration. Our post on the free AI extension for TYPO3 explains what that covers. If Composer is new to you, our guide to installing TYPO3 extensions with Composer covers the basics.

Get AI Foundation for TYPO3

Open AI Foundation in the module menu, then the MCP Server tab and its Advanced tab:

1. Under Options, make sure Enable MCP Server is ticked.
2. Select Save settings and clear the caches.
3. Look at the header of the module: Server Status should read Online.

The same header shows the Server URL, which ends in /mcp. That is the address your assistant connects to in the next step, and the Copy button next to it puts it on your clipboard.

The documentation recommends finishing the AI Providers setup before you switch on MCP, with your own API keys as the default (MCP server documentation).

In the Connect tab, pick Remote (OAuth), marked Recommended, and copy the server URL. Then:

1. Add the URL to your assistant as a remote MCP server. Each client names this differently, such as a custom connector or an MCP server entry; our guides for Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Cursor and VS Code walk through each one.
2. Sign in when your browser opens. On the first connection, AI Foundation shows a page called Authorize Application, which names the client that asks for access. Sign in there with the TYPO3 backend user whose rights the assistant should use, and select Authorize.
3. Go back to your assistant. It now holds a token for that user and lists the MCP tools it can use.

An assistant that registers itself on its first connection, as Claude did on our demo install, needs no client ID or secret from you. The sign-in follows the authorization rules of the Model Context Protocol: OAuth with PKCE, a check that stops an intercepted sign-in code from being used by anyone else, and our demo install lists S256 as its only PKCE method. From then on, the assistant can do in TYPO3 exactly what that backend user can do. The Connect tab also offers other methods, such as a token URL for clients without OAuth; Remote (OAuth) is the one to start with.

Three checks tell you the setup works, from the outside in.

The endpoint answers. Without a token, /mcp has to refuse you, and the OAuth discovery document has to answer with JSON. Replace the example address with your own:

A 401 is the answer you want here. A 503 means the MCP server is switched off, which step 2 fixes.

The connection is listed. MCP Server, OAuth Tokens shows one row per connected client: the backend user it acts as, when its token was created and last used, when it expires, the workspace and a Revoke button.

Your assistant answers from TYPO3. Ask a question that only reads, such as Give me a quick overview of the pages on our website and the languages they exist in. On our demo install, the assistant read the page tree and the site languages, then answered: two sites, each in English and German, how many of their pages are translated, and which pages have no German version, the Tents page among them. Nothing was changed.

The video for this episode starts with the first prompt on our demo TYPO3, recorded on 30 September 2026 through the MCP server of AI Foundation, as an administrator working on Live: Give me a quick overview of the pages on our website and the languages they exist in. The assistant read the page tree and the site languages and answered in 23.7 seconds on our demo install, measured from the prompt to the finished answer. Nothing was changed. The video then checks the connection in TYPO3: the MCP Server module with its status and server URL, the sign-in in your browser that you approve as a backend user, and the OAuth Tokens list, where you can revoke the connection. The core tools are free with AI Foundation, and extensions add licensed tools. The install itself is not shown: our demo already runs AI Foundation, and the commands are in step 1.

When the connection fails, check these five points, in the order you would meet them:

The documentation keeps a longer list of known problems, next to the installation guide.

The setup gives your assistant access, and the control stays with you:

• Its rights are the rights of the user who signed in. In our example that is an administrator on Live, so a change is live as soon as the assistant saves it.
• Check every change, and know how to put it back. Ask the assistant to read the current value before a change, check the page afterwards, and have it write the old value back if you do not want the change. Our post on TYPO3 MCP use cases shows this on a real job. When the assistant writes with records_apply, ask for a dry run first and keep the batch ID: records_undo takes the whole batch back, as episode 3 shows.
• Where safety matters, AI Foundation can hold changes to pages and content in a TYPO3 draft workspace for review, while files, file metadata, redirects, scheduler tasks and cache clears act live even there.
• What your assistant reads goes to its vendor, as with any chat. Which content leaves your server in context mode and in native mode is the subject of episode 13.
• You can end it at any time. Revoke one connection under OAuth Tokens, untick Enable MCP Server to close the server for every client, or remove the extension with composer remove nitsan/ns-t3af.

AI Foundation's core tools are free. AI Assistant, AI Accessibility, AI Chatbot and AI Search add their own MCP tools and need their own licences; together with AI Foundation they bring 100+ MCP tools.

Which assistant fits your team, on which plan and with which sign-in, is the subject of TYPO3 MCP clients compared, the other post of this episode. What you can hand over once it is connected, free or licensed, is on the map of TYPO3 MCP use cases. Episode 3 brings everyday edits from chat, and episode 5 your first prompts in the Playground.

The series comes from T3Planet by NITSAN Technologies, a TYPO3 Association Gold Member with more than 15 years of TYPO3 work, and its episodes are written by Jürgen, our AI Consultant for TYPO3. Every episode runs its job on our demo install before it is published.

All episodes of MCP in Practice for TYPO3