adaptive-cards-mcp

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

Part of the Adaptive Cards MCP ecosystem.

Quick Start

1. Add to your AI assistant

No install needed — npx downloads and runs it automatically.

Claude Code:

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

GitHub Copilot (VS Code) — add to .vscode/mcp.json:

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

Cursor — add to .cursor/mcp.json:

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

HTTP/SSE (for M365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, ChatGPT):

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

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

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, and returns production-ready JSON you can paste into the Adaptive Cards Designer to preview.

Usage

Natural language (recommended)

Just describe what you need:

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

> Build a CI/CD deployment notification — service name, environment, build number,
  status badge, and rollback action

> Here's our sales data, make it a card:
  [{"region":"APAC","revenue":1250000},{"region":"EMEA","revenue":980000}]

> This card works in Teams but breaks in Outlook — fix it for v1.4

| 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 |

Slash commands (MCP prompts)

For guided multi-step workflows:

Create a card:

> /adaptive-cards-mcp:create-adaptive-card
  description: "A weather forecast card showing 5-day outlook with temperatures and icons"
  host: teams
  intent: display

Convert data to a card:

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

Review an existing card:

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

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 |

Library Usage

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

npm install adaptive-cards-mcp

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

// Generate from description
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

// Convert data to card
const table = await dataToCard({
  data: [{ name: "Alice", role: "Engineer" }, { name: "Bob", role: "Designer" }],
  title: "Team"
});

// Validate with suggested fixes
const validation = validateCardFull({ card: myCard, host: "outlook" });
// validation.errors[0].suggestedFix → { description: "...", patch: {...} }

// Optimize
const optimized = optimizeCard({ card: myCard, goals: ["accessibility", "modern"] });

// Templatize
const template = templateCard({ card: myCard });

// Transform for a different host
const transformed = transformCard({
  card: myCard,
  transform: "apply-host-config",
  targetHost: "webex"
});

// Get layout suggestion
const suggestion = suggestLayout({
  description: "team member directory with photos"
});

Card Persistence

Tools return a cardId that can be passed to subsequent tools instead of the full card JSON:

const { card, cardId } = await generateCard({ content: "..." });
const validation = validateCardFull({ card: cardId, host: "teams" });
const optimized = optimizeCard({ card: cardId, goals: ["accessibility"] });

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

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 |

LLM Integration

By default, uses deterministic pattern matching (21 layout patterns). For AI-powered generation, set an API key:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...   # Anthropic (recommended)
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...          # OpenAI
export AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY=...       # Azure OpenAI
export OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434  # Ollama (local)

Note: When used via MCP (Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor), the host LLM provides the intelligence — no API key needed.

Configuration

| Variable | Description | Default | |----------|-------------|---------| | TRANSPORT | stdio or sse | stdio | | PORT | HTTP port for SSE | 3001 | | MCP_API_KEY | API key for HTTP auth | (disabled) | | MCP_AUTH_MODE | bearer for token auth | (disabled) | | DEBUG | adaptive-cards-mcp for logs | (disabled) | | MCP_RATE_LIMIT | true to enable | false | | MCP_TELEMETRY | true to enable metrics | false |

Development

npm install
npm run build         # TypeScript + copy data files
npm test              # 924 tests (vitest)
npm run test:coverage # Coverage report
npm run lint          # TypeScript type check
npm run lint:eslint   # ESLint
npm run format        # Prettier

Local Testing

Smoke test all tools and prompts:

# From repo root
./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)

MCP Inspector (visual UI):

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

Terminal (stdio):

npm run build
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 dist/server.js
curl http://localhost:3001/health

Related

• Adaptive Cards MCP (monorepo)
• VS Code Extension
• openclaw-adaptive-cards — OpenClaw AI agent plugin using this library
• Adaptive Cards Documentation — Official docs
• Adaptive Cards Designer — Interactive card designer
• CHANGELOG

License

MIT