business-central-mcp

Overview

Related MCP server: Microsoft Business Central MCP Server

Install

BC Online (sandbox / production): do not put a password in env. Copy the portal URL from your browser and follow SaaS sandbox setup. The snippets below are for on-prem NavUserPassword.

VSCode

Click the badge. VSCode opens and prompts for your BC URL, username, and password (on-prem), then writes the configured entry to your user mcp.json. For BC Online, skip the badge and use the SaaS sandbox env (URL + optional email only).

Workspace: create .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "business-central": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "business-central-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "BC_BASE_URL": "http://your-bc-server/BC",
        "BC_USERNAME": "your-user",
        "BC_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

BC Online — same file, no password:

{
  "servers": {
    "business-central": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "business-central-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "BC_BASE_URL": "https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/<aad-tenant-id>/DEV",
        "BC_USERNAME": "you@tenant.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add business-central \
  -e BC_BASE_URL=http://your-bc-server/BC \
  -e BC_USERNAME=you \
  -e BC_PASSWORD=secret \
  -- npx -y business-central-mcp

Scope it to the current project with --scope project. See claude mcp --help for scoping options.

BC Online (no password):

claude mcp add business-central \
  -e BC_BASE_URL=https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/<aad-tenant-id>/DEV \
  -e BC_USERNAME=you@tenant.com \
  --scope project \
  -- npx -y business-central-mcp

Claude Desktop

1. Download the latest .dxt from Releases.

2. Double-click. Claude Desktop opens Settings → Extensions and prompts for BC URL, username, and password (on-prem). For BC Online, use the manual snippet instead — do not store a SaaS password.

3. Restart Claude Desktop.

Edit claude_desktop_config.json:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "business-central": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "business-central-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "BC_BASE_URL": "http://your-bc-server/BC",
        "BC_USERNAME": "your-user",
        "BC_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop.

Configuration

On-prem containers: set BC_APPLICATION_ID=NAV

If sign-in and the WebSocket upgrade both succeed but the session dies at OpenSession with NavCancelCredentialPromptException, the server is rejecting the default applicationId (FIN). On-prem BcContainerHelper containers (the onprem artifact type) generally expect NAV:

BC_APPLICATION_ID=NAV

The failure is misleading because authentication and the /csh upgrade complete first (you get a 101); BC only rejects the applicationId inside the OpenSession RPC body. SaaS and cronus images keep the FIN default. Verified against BC 27.1 onprem (see issue #10).

SaaS sandbox setup

You only need the URL from the browser address bar — the same one you use to open Business Central Online:

https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/<aad-tenant-id>/<environment>

<environment> is usually DEV, sandbox, or production. Do not set BC_PASSWORD. Company policy and this server both treat a SaaS password in env as wrong.

1. Copy that portal URL into BC_BASE_URL (no extra path, no query string).

2. Optionally set BC_USERNAME to your work email — that only prefills the sign-in form.

3. Point the MCP at this project (stdio, Grok .grok/config.toml, Claude --scope project, or a workspace mcp.json). Leave STATE_DIR unset so cookies land in {project}/.state/.

4. Start the agent on a machine with a display (Linux needs DISPLAY or WAYLAND_DISPLAY). Headless CI cannot complete MFA.

5. Ask the agent to open a page (bc_open_page, e.g. Customer List = 22). A local window (127.0.0.1) opens. Sign in with Microsoft and complete Authenticator there. Do not paste the password into chat or tool arguments.

6. Retry the tool. Cookies are saved as {project}/.state/saas-web-cookies.json (mode 0600). Later sessions in the same repo reuse them; another repo needs its own sign-in.

Human shortcut (same working directory as the MCP):

npx business-central-mcp login
# from a source checkout:
npx tsx src/stdio-server.ts login

Grok (project-scoped, no password):

# .grok/config.toml  — not committed if it holds a tenant URL you do not want shared
[mcp_servers.business-central]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "business-central-mcp"]

[mcp_servers.business-central.env]
BC_BASE_URL = "https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/<aad-tenant-id>/DEV"
BC_USERNAME = "you@tenant.com"

From a source checkout, point command / args at node + node_modules/tsx/dist/cli.mjs + src/stdio-server.ts instead of npx.

Claude Desktop / VS Code (no BC_PASSWORD):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "business-central": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "business-central-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "BC_BASE_URL": "https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/<aad-tenant-id>/DEV",
        "BC_USERNAME": "you@tenant.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

The WebSocket is not on the portal host. After sign-in the server discovers the cluster and uses Origin: https://businesscentral.dynamics.com. You never put a cluster URL in config.

bc_query (OData) on SaaS

bc_query does not use the /csh cookie session. When sign-in is needed the first call returns DEVICE_LOGIN_REQUIRED with a https://microsoft.com/devicelogin URL and user code — complete it in a browser and retry; the retry picks up the pending sign-in and runs the query. The refresh token is stored in STATE_DIR/oauth-tokens.json (mode 0600).

bc_query talks to https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v2.0/{tenant}/{environment}/api/v2.0 with the Bearer token. If BC_CLIENT_ID is not configured it returns OAUTH_NOT_CONFIGURED (device-code that has not been completed returns DEVICE_LOGIN_REQUIRED, above); it never sends Basic.

Which client id signs in (BC_CLIENT_ID)

BC_CLIENT_ID is required for bc_query on BC Online: a multi-tenant public Entra app with delegated Dynamics 365 Business Central / user_impersonation. The publisher registers it ONE time in their own tenant; customer tenants register nothing — each user consents at first sign-in (user_impersonation is user-consentable), and tenants that disable user consent need a one-time admin-consent click.

Do not borrow a Microsoft first-party client (Azure PowerShell 1950a258-… as New-BcAuthContext does, Azure CLI, …): on tenants with Entra first-party hardening the sign-in fails in the browser with AADSTS65002 ("consent between first party application and first party resource must be configured via preauthorization"), which no tenant admin can consent around. Verified live 2026-08-16 — the same sign-in succeeds on one tenant and fails with 65002 on another. A third-party multi-tenant app is structurally immune (65002 only gates Microsoft-owned client/resource pairs).

Create the app (once, in the publisher tenant):

az ad app create --display-name "business-central-mcp" \
  --is-fallback-public-client true \
  --sign-in-audience AzureADMultipleOrgs \
  --required-resource-accesses '[{"resourceAppId":"996def3d-b36c-4153-8607-a6fd3c01b89f","resourceAccess":[{"id":"bce0976a-cb0b-473b-8800-84eda9f8e447","type":"Scope"}]}]' \
  --query appId -o tsv

(996def3d… is the Dynamics 365 Business Central resource; bce0976a… is its delegated user_impersonation scope.) Put the printed appId in BC_CLIENT_ID.

Known wart: when the browser sign-in fails (65002, blocked consent), Entra keeps the device code authorization_pending, so retries re-serve the same doomed code until it expires (~15 min). Fix the client id / consent, wait out or ignore the old code, and retry for a fresh one.

What can it do?

How it works

This server speaks BC's internal WebSocket protocol directly -- the same protocol the browser-based web client uses. It was reverse-engineered from decompiled BC server assemblies. No OData endpoints, no SOAP services, no Selenium.

One WebSocket connection per session. All operations serialized through a promise queue. BC27 and BC28 are wire-compatible.

LLM (Claude / Copilot / etc.)
   |
   v   MCP (stdio or HTTP)
business-central-mcp
   |
   v   WebSocket + JSON-RPC
BC Web Service Tier (BC27 / BC28)
   |
   v   internal calls
BC Server

bc_open_page returns the page as a flat list of sections:

{
  "pageContextId": "session:page:21:abc",
  "pageType": "Card",
  "caption": "Customer Card",
  "isModal": false,
  "sections": [
    { "sectionId": "header",                       "kind": "header",  "fields": [...], "actions": [...] },
    { "sectionId": "factbox:Customer Statistics",  "kind": "factbox", "fields": [...] }
  ]
}

Each section carries its own content shape:

• Card-style (header on Card pages, factbox, requestPage): fields[] and (for header) actions[]

• List-style (lines on Documents, header on List pages, repeater subpages): rows[] and totalRowCount

• Cue tiles (Role Center hosted CardParts): cues[] with each tile's name, value, groupCaption, synopsis, hasAction. Drill down with bc_execute_action { section, cue }.

bc_read_data returns a single Section for the requested sectionId (defaults to "header"). The section ID for a FactBox or subpage comes from the bc_open_page response.

• Automatic reconnect with exponential backoff after session death

• Handles BC's ~15s NTLM auth slot hold after crashes

• Auto-dismisses license popups on fresh databases

• Invoke timeout kills hung sessions and triggers recovery

• Auto-recovery from LogicalModalityViolationException mid-session: reconciles the modal stack and retries transparently; falls back to session reset when BC keeps a confirm dialog sticky

Key files

Development

git clone https://github.com/SShadowS/business-central-mcp
cd business-central-mcp
npm install
npm run start:stdio-direct   # Run from source
npm test                     # unit + protocol tests
npm run test:integration     # Cronus28 integration tests (requires running BC server)
npm run test:saas            # BC Online smoke (needs a signed-in STATE_DIR cookie file)

Roadmap

Cursor support, an interactive init wizard, and a few protocol gaps. See ROADMAP.md for the full list and priorities.

Author: Torben Leth (sshadows@sshadows.dk) License: MIT (see LICENSE)