The server lets an AI assistant operate an open ArcGIS Pro project in-place — reading, editing, analyzing, mapping, and exporting your actual ArcGIS data and layouts.
Session & project: ping, inspect ArcGIS/Pro details, save project, list/create/activate maps and map properties, get environments.
Layers & data: list/add/remove/rename/duplicate layers, set visibility/transparency/scale ranges/definition queries, reorder/group, zoom, set basemap, fix broken sources, join tables.
Attributes & editing: read/count features, unique values, statistics, summarize; insert/update/delete rows, save/discard edits, calculate fields.
Selections: select by SQL or location, get/set/clear selections, zoom to selection.
Schema creation: add/delete/alter fields, create feature classes/tables/geodatabases, truncate/delete datasets, export features.
Geoprocessing: run any ArcGIS geoprocessing tool by name with named parameters, list/describe tools, run custom toolbox tools, check extensions, retrieve messages.
Symbology & labels: set simple/unique-value/graduated renderers, color ramps, labels, copy symbology, save .lyrx files.
Map views & bookmarks: get/set camera, export map view as PNG, create/apply/delete bookmarks.
Layouts & printing: create/delete layouts, add map frames/text/legends/scale bars/north arrows/pictures, position elements, export to PDF/PNG/JPEG/SVG/TIFF, preview layouts, export map series.
Raster analysis: get raster info, set raster symbology, raster calculator, sample values, zonal statistics.
Data discovery: list geodatabase/folder contents, describe datasets, search data by name, manage folder connections.
Escape hatch: execute arbitrary arcpy Python code, run batched commands, and manage the Python bridge dispatcher.
Controls a live ArcGIS Pro session, allowing AI assistants to manage layers, run geoprocessing tools, adjust symbology, export maps, and execute arcpy code.
Click on "Install Server".
Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state.
In the chat, type @ followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@ArcGIS Pro MCP List all layers in the current map"
That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed.
Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.
An ArcGIS Pro add-in that lets you say what you want.
It implements the Model Context Protocol inside ArcGIS Pro itself, so an AI assistant — Claude, Codex, Antigravity, or any other MCP client — can work on the project already open in front of you. Your data, your maps, your layouts. Not a copy, not an export.
Install the add-in, click the button for the assistant you use, done. No config files to find, no JSON to hand-edit, no Python to install.
In any language your assistant speaks. Your assistant does the
understanding; this add-in never matches on English keywords. Non-English text
travels intact in both directions, so a query can name a place in Thai and get
Thai back — PROV_NAMT LIKE '%เชียง%' returns เชียงใหม่ and เชียงราย.
"Style the provinces by area, pastel red through green"
"Which province has the highest population? Put the answer in a new field"
"Export the current map view as a PNG and show me""ระบายสีจังหวัดตามขนาดพื้นที่ ไล่จากแดงพาสเทลไปเขียว"
"จังหวัดไหนมีประชากรมากที่สุด ใส่คำตอบไว้ในคอลัมน์ใหม่"
"ส่งออกมุมมองแผนที่ปัจจุบันเป็น PNG แล้วเอามาให้ดู"The aim is the whole of ArcGIS Pro, not a convenient corner of it. A request falls through three layers, and takes the fastest one that can answer it:
1 | 112 named tools, written in C# | Layers, attributes, selections, symbology, layouts, rasters, editing — the work of an ordinary day. 109 of them execute inside ArcGIS Pro's own process, in about 9 ms each. |
2 | Every geoprocessing tool |
|
3 | Arbitrary arcpy |
|
Layers 1 and 2 need nothing but the add-in. Layer 3 runs through an optional Python bridge inside ArcGIS Pro's own Python — install it when you want the escape hatch, skip it and the first two still work. A command the add-in does not implement is forwarded there automatically; if it is not running, the error says so and how to start it, rather than failing obscurely.
The practical effect is that there is no such thing as "the tool for that is missing". If it can be done in ArcGIS Pro, it can be asked for in a sentence.
Every frame above was rendered by the add-in itself, running the request in
the caption. Rebuild it with python scripts/make_demo_gif.py.
Get it from the latest release and pick one of the two files.
Download
ArcGISProMCP.esriAddinX
and double-click it. ArcGIS Pro's own installer takes it from there. Restart
Pro and the MCP tab appears.
Install-ArcGISProMCP.cmd
is one self-contained file — the add-in is inside it, so there is nothing else
to download.
Double-click it, or run it from a prompt. It is a .cmd, not a .ps1, so
Windows' script execution policy never gets in the way.
Use this one when Pro loads the add-in but the MCP tab never appears: some machines have add-in security turned on, and the add-in alone cannot say so. The installer checks, tells you which of the two states it found, and offers the fix. Run it a second time and it offers to uninstall.
Requires ArcGIS Pro 3.3+. Nothing else — no Python, no SDK, no admin rights.
The same two files are also committed to
dist/, which is
the build the current source produces. Between releases it can be ahead of the
latest release — a fix that is committed but not yet tagged will be there first.
They are committed rather than left as build output because GitHub Actions has no ArcGIS Pro to build against: a build only exists if someone with Pro installed produces it. Committing it keeps a download beside the source that made it.
Take the release unless you have a reason to want something newer than it.
Run the installer again and answer yes, or:
Install-ArcGISProMCP.cmd -UninstallIt removes every copy it finds, including the one ArcGIS Pro's own installer
unpacks into a folder named after the add-in id. The .esriAddinX cannot
uninstall anything — double-clicking it only ever installs. The other way is
ArcGIS Pro itself: Project ▸ Add-In Manager ▸ Delete this Add-In.
Related MCP server: arcpro-mcp
Open the MCP tab in ArcGIS Pro and click your assistant — the three most used are on the ribbon, the rest are under More clients.
Icon | Meaning |
✓ green | that client already has the server — click to remove it |
⊕ grey | click to add it |
greyed out | that client is not installed |
It asks before changing anything, tells you which file it will write, and backs that file up first.
Supported: Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity, VS Code, Cursor, Cline, Gemini CLI, Claude Desktop.
Most clients connect over HTTP:
claude mcp add --transport http arcgis http://127.0.0.1:6520/mcp{ "mcpServers": { "arcgis": { "type": "http", "url": "http://127.0.0.1:6520/mcp" } } }Antigravity wants serverUrl instead of url and no type.
Codex and Claude Desktop launch a server rather than connecting to one, so they need the Python relay. It is not on PyPI yet; install it from this repository:
pip install git+https://github.com/Knight60/ArcGIS-Pro-MCPThat puts arcgis-pro-mcp.exe on your PATH, which is what those two clients
should be pointed at. The ribbon buttons do this for you and will say so if the
relay is missing.
The bridge lives inside ArcGIS Pro, so Pro has to be open. Close it and the client's connection goes red.
One button starts and stops, the way a play button does: the icon shows what the next click will do, so it doubles as the state readout. Green ▶ means stopped, red ⏹ means running.
Status shows a green broadcast while listening and a contained grey dot when not, with the port as its caption. Click it for the full report: requests served, which clients are connected, and the last error.
112 tools. Anything not listed is still reachable through run_geoprocessing_tool or execute_arcpy_code.
Tool | What it does |
| Check that the ArcGIS Pro bridge is reachable and see which project it is attached to |
| List every command the connected bridge supports, grouped by area |
| Self-check the connection: ArcGIS Pro version, licence, open project, active map, open map view and write access |
| ArcGIS Pro version, licence level, available extensions and the current project path |
| Project paths, default geodatabase and toolbox, maps, layouts, folder and database connections |
| Save the ArcGIS Pro project (.aprx), or save a copy elsewhere |
| List all maps and scenes with coordinate system and layer counts |
| Create a new map or scene in the project |
| Delete a map from the project |
| Open/activate a map's view in the ArcGIS Pro UI |
| Rename a map or change its coordinate system |
| The combined extent of all data layers in a map |
| Read the current arcpy geoprocessing environment settings |
| Set arcpy geoprocessing environment settings such as workspace, outputCoordinateSystem, extent, mask, cellSize, overwriteOutput or parallelProcessingFactor |
Tool | What it does |
| List the layers (with draw order and group nesting) and standalone tables in a map |
| Full detail for one layer: data source, coordinate system, extent, fields, feature count, renderer and label state |
| Add data to a map from a path or service URL: feature class, shapefile, raster, table, .lyrx layer file or web service |
| Add a web service layer (Feature/Map/Image service, WMS, WMTS, vector tile) by URL |
| Remove a layer or standalone table from a map |
| Rename a layer in the table of contents |
| Copy a layer within the map so it can be symbolised differently |
| Show or hide one layer, several layers, or every layer in the map |
| Set layer transparency (0 = opaque, 100 = fully transparent) |
| Limit the scale range a layer draws at |
| Set a layer's definition query (SQL where clause) |
| Reorder a layer relative to another, or move it into a group layer |
| Create a group layer, optionally moving existing layers into it |
| Zoom the map view to a layer's extent |
| Set the basemap: Topographic, Imagery, Imagery Hybrid, Streets, Navigation, Light Gray Canvas, Dark Gray Canvas, Terrain, Oceans, OpenStreetMap, National Geographic Style Map |
| List layers across all maps whose data source is missing |
| Repoint a layer at a new workspace or dataset to fix a broken source |
| Join a table to a layer on a common field |
| Remove a join from a layer |
Tool | What it does |
| Read attribute rows from a layer, table or dataset path, with an optional where clause, field subset, ordering and WKT geometry |
| Count features, optionally matching a where clause |
| Distinct values of a field with the count of rows for each |
| min / max / mean / median / sum / standard deviation of a numeric field |
| Group rows by one or more fields and aggregate -- the fast way to answer 'how many / how much per category' without geoprocessing |
| Insert new rows into a layer or table |
| Update attributes and/or geometry of rows matching a where clause |
| Delete rows matching a where clause |
| Commit pending edits |
| Throw away pending edits |
| Calculate field values across a layer, e.g |
Tool | What it does |
| Select features by SQL where clause |
| Select features by spatial relationship to another layer |
| Report what is currently selected, per layer, with ObjectIDs and optionally the attribute rows |
| Select specific features by ObjectID |
| Clear the selection on one layer, or on every layer in the map |
| Zoom the map view to the currently selected features |
Tool | What it does |
| List a layer's fields with type, alias, length and domain |
| Add a field to a layer or table |
| Add several fields in one call |
| Delete one or more fields |
| Rename a field or change its alias/length |
| Create an empty feature class, by default in the project's default geodatabase, and add it to the map |
| Create an empty standalone table |
| Create a new file geodatabase |
| Delete every row from a table or feature class, keeping the schema |
| Delete a dataset from disk or a geodatabase |
| Export a layer -- honouring its current selection and definition query -- to a new dataset |
Tool | What it does |
| Run any arcpy geoprocessing tool -- the universal escape hatch for analysis |
| Search the available geoprocessing tools by name |
| List the arcpy toolbox modules and any toolboxes in the project |
| Get a tool's parameters, data types, defaults and usage text before running it |
| Run a tool from a custom .pyt / .atbx / .tbx toolbox on disk |
| Check, and optionally check out, an ArcGIS extension licence |
| Messages from the most recent geoprocessing operation |
Tool | What it does |
| Change a layer's symbology: a single symbol, unique values by category, or a classified/continuous colour scheme by numeric field |
| Inspect a layer's current renderer, class breaks, unique values and label settings |
| List the colour ramps available in the project |
| Turn labels on or off and set the expression, font and halo |
| Copy symbology from a .lyrx file or another layer |
| Save a layer with its symbology to a .lyrx file for reuse |
Tool | What it does |
| Current camera position: centre, scale, rotation and visible extent |
| Move the map view: set an extent, a centre point, a scale and/or a rotation |
| Render the map view to PNG and return the image so it can be looked at -- the way to visually check a map |
| List the spatial bookmarks defined on a map |
| Save the current view, or a given extent, as a named bookmark |
| Zoom the map view to a bookmark |
| Delete a bookmark from a map |
Tool | What it does |
| List the print layouts with page size and element counts |
| Inspect a layout: page setup and every element with position and size |
| Create a new layout page, by default with a map frame filling it |
| Delete a layout from the project |
| Add a map frame to a layout at a page position |
| Point a layout's map frame at a layer, an extent or a scale |
| Add a text element such as a title or credits to a layout |
| Add a legend tied to a layout's map frame |
| Add a scale bar tied to a layout's map frame |
| Add a north arrow tied to a layout's map frame |
| Place an image such as a logo on a layout |
| Move, resize, rename, hide or change the text of any layout element |
| Remove an element from a layout |
| Export a layout to PDF / PNG / JPEG / SVG / TIFF |
| Render a layout to a temporary image and return it, without writing a file -- use it to visually check a layout while building it |
| Export a layout's map series (map book) to a multi-page PDF |
Tool | What it does |
| Raster detail: bands, size, cell size, pixel type, statistics and CRS |
| Set a raster layer's colorizer and colour ramp |
| Map algebra |
| Read raster cell values at map coordinates or at a point layer's features |
| Summarise raster values inside zone polygons and return the table |
Tool | What it does |
| List the datasets inside a geodatabase or folder |
| List GIS files and subfolders on disk |
| Describe any dataset by path -- type, geometry, CRS, extent, fields and row count -- without adding it to a map |
| Find datasets by name across the project's geodatabase, home folder and folder connections |
| Folder connections, database connections and toolboxes registered in the project |
| Register a folder with the project so its data is easy to browse |
Tool | What it does |
| Run Python inside ArcGIS Pro |
| Whether the main-thread dispatcher is installed |
| Remove the main-thread dispatcher |
| Run several commands in one round trip -- much faster for multi-step workflows |
⚠️ = changes or deletes real data 🖼️ = returns an image the AI can look at
No MCP tab after restarting Pro. Add-in security is the usual cause.
Run Install-ArcGISProMCP.cmd; it will say so and offer the two ways round it.
The setting itself is in ArcGIS Pro under Project ▸ Add-In Manager ▸
Options:
The middle setting is the one this add-in is signed for. The bottom one loads anything. What each choice means.
The client shows the server in red. ArcGIS Pro is closed, or the bridge is stopped. Open Pro and check the toggle on the MCP tab shows ⏹ (running).
A command says a layer does not exist. Layers inside a group need their
full name, "Group\Layer", for anything that runs through geoprocessing.
An edit did not appear. ArcGIS Pro holds edits open so they can be undone,
which also keeps the data locked. Call save_edits.
These tools change the project you have open and the data under it. Tools marked ⚠️ above modify or delete real data.
The bridge binds to 127.0.0.1 only — nothing on the network can reach it —
but anything that can run code on your machine can drive ArcGIS Pro through it
while Pro is open. execute_arcpy_code runs arbitrary Python inside Pro.
Prefer non-destructive steps, use save_project deliberately, and let the
assistant confirm before bulk edits.
An ArcGIS Pro add-in written in C#, running inside Pro's own process:
AI client ──MCP over HTTP :6520/mcp ─┐
│
AI client ──MCP stdio──► arcgis-pro-mcp ──TCP :6510──┐
│ │
▼ ▼
┌─ C# add-in (inside the ArcGIS Pro process) ─┐
│ → QueuedTask.Run (Main CIM Thread) │
│ anything it does not implement ─┐ │
└───────────────────────────────────┼─────────┘
▼ :6511
Python bridge (execute_arcpy_code)Being in-process is the whole point. ArcGIS Pro will only let its own Main CIM
Thread touch the open project, and an outside process cannot get onto it. An
earlier all-Python version had to hand work to Pro's Python thread and wait,
which took around 28 seconds per call. The add-in uses QueuedTask.Run
directly: 9 ms.
Three of the 112 tools stay on the Python side, and belong there:
execute_arcpy_code, because a compiled add-in cannot run code composed at
call time, and get_pump_status / stop_pump, which report on the Python
bridge's own dispatcher.
More detail in docs/.
You do not need to — the release is a single download. If you want to change something, see BUILD.md.
.\scripts\build.ps1Everything used to produce a release is in this repository: the build, the signing, the icon drawing, and the installer that gets packed into one file.
Built by Pisut Nakmuenwai (@Knight60).
Dual licensed.
AGPL-3.0 — free, and free to keep. Use it for your own work, paid or unpaid, on as many machines as you like. Modify it. Build on it. The one condition is reciprocal: if you pass on a work built from this one, or run it as a service other people use, those people get its source under the same terms.
Commercial — for shipping it inside a product you do not publish the source of, hosting it in a closed service, or redistributing it under your own name.
Doing GIS work with it and delivering the maps and analysis is ordinary use, not distribution. Most people never need the second licence; the details say where the line falls, and asking is free.
Releases up to v1.0 were MIT and stay MIT — that grant cannot be withdrawn. The dual licence applies from v1.1. NOTICE carries the copyright and an AGPL Section 7 permission for linking with the ArcGIS Pro SDK.
Built and maintained in the open, with no company behind it.
If it saves you time, sponsoring it helps keep it working. Most of the ongoing effort is not new features but keeping up with ArcGIS Pro: every release can move the framework it targets and shift the parameter order of its two thousand geoprocessing tools, and each one means regenerating that table and testing the whole surface again.
Starring the repository costs nothing and helps other people find it. So does telling me what broke — a clear issue is worth a great deal.
This software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. In no event shall the author or copyright holder be liable for any claim, damages, or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort, or otherwise, arising from or in connection with the software or its use. The full terms are in LICENSE.
Two properties of this software deserve stating plainly rather than being left to the licence, because they are what it is for rather than defects in it:
It executes commands against a live ArcGIS Pro session, including operations that permanently alter or delete datasets, project files, and geodatabase contents. The tools marked ⚠️ in the table above are the ones that do so.
Those commands are issued by an AI assistant, whose output is not
deterministic and is not reviewed before it runs. execute_arcpy_code
executes arbitrary Python inside ArcGIS Pro with the privileges of the
signed-in user.
You remain responsible for your data and for the consequences of any operation performed through this software. Back up anything you cannot afford to lose, work on copies where practical, and verify results before relying on them. Use against production data, or against data you cannot restore, is entirely at your own risk.
This project is an independent work. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or supported by Esri, and it is not a supported ArcGIS product. ArcGIS and ArcGIS Pro are trademarks of Esri. Your use of ArcGIS Pro remains governed by your own licence agreement with Esri, and nothing here modifies it.
Provides AI assistants with direct access to Mapbox developer APIs and documentation.
GIS tools for AI agents: 65 free tools + 8 paid (hazard/site-scouting/GeoJSON export)
AI access to Mapbox docs, API references, style specs, and guides. No token required.
We provide all the information about MCP servers via our MCP API.
curl -X GET 'https://glama.ai/api/mcp/v1/servers/Knight60/ArcGIS-Pro-MCP'
If you have feedback or need assistance with the MCP directory API, please join our Discord server