Adaptive Cards MCP

<p align="center"> <img src="media/hero.png" alt="adaptive-cards-mcp — 9 tools, 21 patterns, 924 tests, 0 competitors" width="800"> </p>

An MCP server that helps AI assistants generate valid, accessible Adaptive Cards for Teams, Outlook, Copilot, and other Microsoft surfaces. 9 tools, 3 guided workflows, 924 tests.

Blog: I Built an MCP Server That Makes AI 10x Better at Adaptive Cards

Demo

<p align="center"> <video src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/372655ce-776c-4e31-a77a-4b2f79f638d2" width="800" autoplay loop muted playsinline> Your browser does not support the video tag. </video> </p>

Quick Start

No install needed — npx downloads and runs it automatically.

1. Add to your AI assistant

<details open> <summary><strong>Claude Code</strong></summary>

claude mcp add adaptive-cards-mcp -- npx adaptive-cards-mcp

</details>

<details> <summary><strong>GitHub Copilot (VS Code)</strong></summary>

Add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "adaptive-cards-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["adaptive-cards-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

</details>

<details> <summary><strong>Cursor</strong></summary>

Add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "adaptive-cards-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["adaptive-cards-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

</details>

<details> <summary><strong>Windsurf</strong></summary>

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "adaptive-cards-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["adaptive-cards-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

</details>

<details> <summary><strong>Microsoft 365 Copilot / Copilot Studio (HTTP/SSE)</strong></summary>

TRANSPORT=sse PORT=3001 npx adaptive-cards-mcp

# With auth enabled
TRANSPORT=sse MCP_API_KEY=your-secret npx adaptive-cards-mcp

1. Open Copilot Studio → your agent → Tools → Add a tool → New tool → Model Context Protocol
2. Enter your MCP server URL (e.g., https://your-server.azurewebsites.net/sse)
3. Select the tools to expose </details>

<details> <summary><strong>OpenAI ChatGPT</strong></summary>

1. Enable Developer mode in ChatGPT settings
2. Go to Settings → Connectors → Create
3. Enter your MCP server HTTPS URL </details>

2. Start using it

Just ask your AI assistant in natural language:

> Create an expense approval card for Teams

> Convert this JSON data into an Adaptive Card table

> Validate this card and fix accessibility issues

> Make this card work on Outlook (v1.4)

The AI picks the right tools, generates a valid card, validates it, and returns production-ready JSON you can paste directly into the Adaptive Cards Designer to preview.

Usage

Natural language (recommended)

Describe what you need — the AI figures out which tools to call:

Approvals and workflows:

> Create an expense approval card for Teams with requester photo, amount,
  category, line items, and approve/reject/comment buttons

> Build a time-off request card — employee name, dates, remaining PTO balance,
  manager approval with optional rejection reason

Notifications and alerts:

> Create a CI/CD deployment notification: service name, environment, build number,
  commit SHA, deploy status with rollback button

> Generate a PagerDuty-style incident alert card — severity P1, affected service,
  start time, on-call engineer, acknowledge/escalate actions

Data and reports:

> Here's our Q1 sales data, turn it into a card:
  [{"region":"APAC","revenue":1250000,"growth":"12%"},
   {"region":"EMEA","revenue":980000,"growth":"8%"},
   {"region":"Americas","revenue":2100000,"growth":"15%"}]

> Convert this CSV to a card:
  Employee,Department,Start Date,Status
  Jane Kim,Engineering,2026-01-15,Active
  Bob Lee,Design,2026-02-01,Active
  Carol Wu,PM,2026-03-10,Onboarding

Forms and input:

> Create an employee onboarding checklist — new hire name, start date,
  assigned buddy, IT setup tasks with checkboxes, and a submit button

> Build a customer feedback survey card with a 1-5 star rating,
  comment field, and NPS score dropdown

Profiles and status:

> Create a team member profile card with photo, name, title, department,
  skills tags, and contact buttons for email/chat/calendar

> Build a service health dashboard card showing 5 microservices
  with status indicators (healthy/degraded/down) and last check time

Cross-host and versioning:

> This card works in Teams but breaks in Outlook — fix it
> Make this card work on Webex (v1.3 only, no Table, no Action.Execute)
> Downgrade this v1.6 card to v1.4 for Viva Connections

Validation and optimization:

> Validate this card and tell me what's wrong — I'm getting render errors
> Make this card accessible — it needs to work with screen readers
> This card is too complex, optimize it for performance and compact layout

What you say	What the AI calls
"Create a leave approval card for Teams"	generate_and_validate → optimized card with Approve/Reject actions
"Here's my API response, make it a card"	data_to_card → auto-picks Table/FactSet/List based on data shape
"Is this card valid for Outlook?"	validate_card → schema errors, accessibility score, host compatibility
"Make this card accessible"	optimize_card → adds wrap, altText, speak, heading styles
"Convert this card to a reusable template"	template_card → static values become ${expression} bindings
"This card needs to work on v1.3"	transform_card → downgrades, removes unsupported features
"What layout should I use for a dashboard?"	suggest_layout → pattern recommendation with rationale

Slash commands (MCP prompts)

For guided, multi-step workflows, use the built-in prompts directly:

Create a card:

> /adaptive-cards-mcp:create-adaptive-card
  description: "Expense approval with requester photo, line items table, total amount,
                and approve/reject buttons with comment field"
  host: teams
  intent: approval

Runs: generate → validate → optimize → host config

> /adaptive-cards-mcp:create-adaptive-card
  description: "CI/CD deployment notification with service name, environment,
                build number, status badge, and rollback action"
  host: teams
  intent: notification

> /adaptive-cards-mcp:create-adaptive-card
  description: "Employee profile card with photo, name, title, department,
                contact info, and skills tags"
  host: outlook
  intent: profile

Convert data to a card:

> /adaptive-cards-mcp:convert-data-to-card
  data: [
    { "task": "Review PR #482", "assignee": "Jane", "due": "2026-03-21", "status": "pending" },
    { "task": "Deploy hotfix v2.1.3", "assignee": "Bob", "due": "2026-03-19", "status": "in-progress" },
    { "task": "Update API docs", "assignee": "Carol", "due": "2026-03-22", "status": "done" }
  ]
  title: "Sprint Tasks"
  presentation: table

> /adaptive-cards-mcp:convert-data-to-card
  data: { "service": "api-gateway", "cpu": "92%", "memory": "78%", "requests": "12.4k/min",
          "p99_latency": "245ms", "error_rate": "0.3%", "uptime": "99.97%" }
  title: "Service Health — api-gateway"
  presentation: facts

Runs: analyze data → pick best layout → validate output

Review an existing card:

> /adaptive-cards-mcp:review-adaptive-card
  card: { "type": "AdaptiveCard", "version": "1.6", "body": [...your card...] }
  host: outlook

Runs: validate schema + accessibility → auto-fix issues → summary report

npm library (programmatic)

For use in your own code (bots, APIs, CI pipelines), install the package:

npm install adaptive-cards-mcp

import { generateCard, validateCardFull, dataToCard, optimizeCard } from 'adaptive-cards-mcp';

const result = await generateCard({
  content: "Create a flight status card",
  host: "teams",
  intent: "display"
});

console.log(result.card);       // Adaptive Card JSON
console.log(result.cardId);     // Reference ID for subsequent calls
console.log(result.validation); // Schema + accessibility + host compat

See the Library API reference for full details.

What you get back

Card-producing tools return two clean blocks — card JSON you can copy, and a metadata summary:

```json
{
  "type": "AdaptiveCard",
  "version": "1.6",
  "body": [ ... ],
  "actions": [ ... ]
}
```

---

**Validation:** Valid
**Accessibility Score:** 100/100
**Elements:** 7 | **Nesting Depth:** 2 | **Version:** 1.6
**Card ID:** card-abc123
**Steps:** generate → validate → optimize
**Try it out:** Paste the card JSON into the [Adaptive Cards Designer](https://adaptivecards.microsoft.com/designer)
**Local Preview:** file:///tmp/ac-preview-xyz.html

Tools, Prompt and Usage

<p align="center"> <img src="media/mcp-tools.png" alt="9 MCP tools for Adaptive Cards" width="800"> </p>

<p align="center"> <img src="media/mcp-generate.png" alt="generate_card producing a leave approval card for Teams" width="800"> </p>

Reference

MCP Tools (9)

Tool	Description
generate_card	Natural language / data → valid Adaptive Card v1.6 JSON
validate_card	Schema validation + accessibility score + host compatibility + suggested fixes
data_to_card	Auto-select Table / FactSet / Chart / List from data shape
optimize_card	Improve accessibility, performance, modernize actions
template_card	Static card → ${expression} data-bound template
transform_card	Version upgrade/downgrade, host-config adaptation
suggest_layout	Recommend best layout pattern for a description
generate_and_validate	Generate + validate + optionally optimize in one call
card_workflow	Multi-step pipeline: generate → optimize → template → transform

MCP Prompts (3)

Prompt	Pipeline	Slash command
create-adaptive-card	generate → validate → optimize → host config	/adaptive-cards-mcp:create-adaptive-card
review-adaptive-card	validate → auto-fix → before/after report	/adaptive-cards-mcp:review-adaptive-card
convert-data-to-card	analyze data → pick presentation → validate	/adaptive-cards-mcp:convert-data-to-card

MCP Resources (5) + Templates (2)

Resource	Description
ac://schema/v1.6	Complete JSON Schema for Adaptive Cards v1.6
ac://hosts	Host compatibility matrix for all 7 hosts
ac://hosts/{hostName}	Single host compatibility info
ac://examples	36 curated example cards catalog
ac://examples/{intent}	Examples filtered by intent
ac://patterns	21 canonical layout patterns
ac://cards	Session card store (cards by cardId)

Host Compatibility

Host	Max Version	Notes
Generic	1.6	Default — no host-specific constraints
Teams	1.6	Max 6 actions, Action.Execute preferred
Outlook	1.4	Limited elements, max 4 actions
Web Chat	1.6	Full support
Windows	1.6	Subset of elements
Viva Connections	1.4	SPFx-based ACE framework
Webex	1.3	No Table, no Action.Execute

Configuration

Environment Variable	Description	Default
TRANSPORT	Transport mode: stdio or sse	stdio
PORT	HTTP port for SSE transport	3001
MCP_API_KEY	API key for HTTP auth	(disabled)
MCP_AUTH_MODE	Auth mode: bearer for token validation	(disabled)
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Anthropic Claude API key	(deterministic mode)
OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI API key	(deterministic mode)
AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY	Azure OpenAI API key	(disabled)
AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT	Azure OpenAI endpoint URL	(disabled)
OLLAMA_BASE_URL	Ollama local model URL	(disabled)
DEBUG	Enable debug logging: adaptive-cards-mcp	(disabled)
MCP_RATE_LIMIT	Enable rate limiting: true	false
MCP_TELEMETRY	Enable telemetry: true to opt-in	false
POSTHOG_API_KEY	PostHog project API key for remote reporting	(disabled)
POSTHOG_HOST	PostHog API host	https://eu.i.posthog.com

Note: When used via MCP (Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor), the host LLM provides the intelligence — no API key needed. Set an API key only for standalone/library usage.

Telemetry & Privacy

Telemetry is opt-in and disabled by default. When enabled, the server collects anonymous usage metrics and sends aggregated data to PostHog to help improve the project.

How to enable:

• VS Code extension: A one-time consent prompt appears on first install. You can change it anytime in Settings → Adaptive Cards → Telemetry.
• CLI / MCP server: Set MCP_TELEMETRY=true in your environment, or edit ~/.adaptive-cards-mcp/config.json and set "telemetry": true.

What is sent: Tool names, call counts, durations, error rates, platform (OS), Node version, package version, transport type.

What is never sent: Card content, user prompts, data payloads, IP addresses, file paths, environment variables.

A random session ID is generated each time the server starts — no persistent identifier is stored across sessions.

To disable: Set MCP_TELEMETRY=false or leave unconfigured (default is off).

Development

cd packages/core
npm install
npm run build         # TypeScript + copy data files
npm test              # 924 tests (vitest)
npm run test:coverage # With coverage report
npm run lint          # TypeScript type check
npm run lint:eslint   # ESLint check
npm run format        # Prettier formatting

Local Testing

Smoke test all tools and prompts:

./test-mcp-tools.sh --local     # 28 tests — all 9 tools with real-world scenarios
./test-mcp-prompts.sh --local   # 10 tests — all 3 prompts (guided workflows)
./test-mcp-tools.sh             # same tests against published npm package
./test-mcp-prompts.sh           # same tests against published npm package

MCP Inspector (visual UI):

cd packages/core && npm run build
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/server.js
# Opens http://localhost:6274 — pick a tool, enter params, click Run

Terminal (stdio):

cd packages/core
echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"test","version":"1.0"}}}
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"generate_card","arguments":{"content":"expense approval card","intent":"approval","host":"teams"}}}' \
  | node dist/server.js 2>/dev/null | tail -1 | python3 -m json.tool

SSE mode:

TRANSPORT=sse PORT=3001 node packages/core/dist/server.js
curl http://localhost:3001/health

Architecture

packages/core/src/
├── server.ts              # MCP server (stdio + SSE, 9 tools, 3 prompts)
├── index.ts               # Library exports
├── types/                 # TypeScript interfaces
├── core/                  # Schema validator, analyzer, accessibility, host compat
├── generation/            # 21 layout patterns, data analyzer, assembler, LLM client
├── tools/                 # 9 tool handlers
├── utils/                 # Logger, input guards, rate limiter, card store, auth, telemetry, preview
└── data/                  # v1.6 schema, 36 examples, host configs

Ecosystem

Package	Description
packages/core	MCP server + npm library (9 tools) — npm
packages/vscode-extension	VS Code extension — adaptive-cards-ai-vscode

What's New in v2.3.0

• Accessibility 100/100 — All generated cards now include speak property automatically
• No more broken JSON — Newlines in content sanitized, titles no longer truncate at version numbers
• Host-aware generation — generate_and_validate auto-downgrades card version for Outlook (v1.4), Webex (v1.3)
• CSV fix — CSV data correctly parsed before building FactSet/Table cards
• Telemetry — /metrics endpoint with session tracking, per-tool call distribution, host/intent usage
• MCP Registry — Listed on the official MCP Registry
• E2E test suite — 28 tool tests + 10 prompt tests with quality gates (a11y score, element count)

See the full CHANGELOG for details.

Links

• npm — Install and package details
• GitHub — Source code, issues, and contributions
• MCP Registry — Official MCP server listing

Related Projects

• AdaptiveCards-Mobile — Cross-platform Adaptive Cards renderer
• openclaw-adaptive-cards — OpenClaw AI agent plugin using this library
• Adaptive Cards Documentation — Official docs
• Adaptive Cards Designer — Interactive card designer
• Adaptive Cards Schema Explorer — Interactive schema reference

License

MIT