Introduction
What if your AI assistant could directly talk to your SAP systems? Not through copy-pasting API responses, but through a standardized protocol that lets AI understand your API landscape and make calls on your behalf?
That’s exactly what the OData MCP Proxy enables. It’s an open-source, configuration-driven server that exposes any OData V2 or REST API as MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools, making them instantly accessible to AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.
In this blog post, I’ll walk you through what the OData MCP Proxy is, how it works under the hood and why it matters for the SAP ecosystem.
What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?
The Model Context Protocol is an open standard (originally developed by Anthropic) that provides a standardized way for AI assistants to interact with external tools and data sources. The easiest way to understand MCP is through a familiar analogy: HTTP is the standard protocol that connects users (via web browsers) to web servers. MCP plays the same role for AI, it’s the standard protocol that connects AI agents to external capabilities. Where a web browser is a “dumb” renderer that displays whatever the server sends, an AI agent is a “smart” browser that understands context, decides which tools to call and acts on your behalf.
MCP defines a simple contract: a server registers “tools” (functions with typed inputs and outputs) and an AI client discovers and invokes those tools during conversations. The AI decides when and how to call which tool based on the user’s natural language request. Just as a web server hosts pages, APIs and media, an MCP server hosts tools and resources allowing the AI agent to navigate through them intelligently.
What is the OData MCP Proxy?
The OData MCP Proxy is an open-source npm package that turns any OData V2 or REST API into an MCP server. You describe your APIs in a JSON configuration file and the proxy automatically generates MCP tools for every entity set and operation you define.
No custom code required. Just configuration.
A complete package.json , just one dependency and a start script:
The best analogy in the SAP world: it’s like the SAP Application Router (approuter). The approuter is a ready-made runtime you configure with a routing descriptor, you don’t write the HTTP proxy logic yourself. Similarly, the OData MCP Proxy is a ready-made MCP runtime you configure with an API descriptor.
Key Features
Configuration-driven tool registration, no code neededFull CRUD support (list, get, create, update, delete) per entity setOData V2 query capabilities ($filter, $select, $expand, $orderby, $top, $skip)Navigation property traversal for related entitiesDual transport: HTTP (for cloud deployment) and stdio (for local Claude Desktop) – although only HTTP is valuable when deployed on BTPAutomatic OAuth2 token management via SAP BTP Destination ServiceXSUAA integration with role-based access control (not entirely implemented yet)Category-based filtering to enable/disable API groupsDeployable to SAP BTP Cloud Foundry
IntroductionWhat if your AI assistant could directly talk to your SAP systems? Not through copy-pasting API responses, but through a standardized protocol that lets AI understand your API landscape and make calls on your behalf?That’s exactly what the OData MCP Proxy enables. It’s an open-source, configuration-driven server that exposes any OData V2 or REST API as MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools, making them instantly accessible to AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.In this blog post, I’ll walk you through what the OData MCP Proxy is, how it works under the hood and why it matters for the SAP ecosystem.What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?The Model Context Protocol is an open standard (originally developed by Anthropic) that provides a standardized way for AI assistants to interact with external tools and data sources. The easiest way to understand MCP is through a familiar analogy: HTTP is the standard protocol that connects users (via web browsers) to web servers. MCP plays the same role for AI, it’s the standard protocol that connects AI agents to external capabilities. Where a web browser is a “dumb” renderer that displays whatever the server sends, an AI agent is a “smart” browser that understands context, decides which tools to call and acts on your behalf.MCP defines a simple contract: a server registers “tools” (functions with typed inputs and outputs) and an AI client discovers and invokes those tools during conversations. The AI decides when and how to call which tool based on the user’s natural language request. Just as a web server hosts pages, APIs and media, an MCP server hosts tools and resources allowing the AI agent to navigate through them intelligently. What is the OData MCP Proxy?The OData MCP Proxy is an open-source npm package that turns any OData V2 or REST API into an MCP server. You describe your APIs in a JSON configuration file and the proxy automatically generates MCP tools for every entity set and operation you define.No custom code required. Just configuration.A complete package.json , just one dependency and a start script:The best analogy in the SAP world: it’s like the SAP Application Router (approuter). The approuter is a ready-made runtime you configure with a routing descriptor, you don’t write the HTTP proxy logic yourself. Similarly, the OData MCP Proxy is a ready-made MCP runtime you configure with an API descriptor.Key FeaturesConfiguration-driven tool registration, no code neededFull CRUD support (list, get, create, update, delete) per entity setOData V2 query capabilities ($filter, $select, $expand, $orderby, $top, $skip)Navigation property traversal for related entitiesDual transport: HTTP (for cloud deployment) and stdio (for local Claude Desktop) – although only HTTP is valuable when deployed on BTPAutomatic OAuth2 token management via SAP BTP Destination ServiceXSUAA integration with role-based access control (not entirely implemented yet)Category-based filtering to enable/disable API groupsDeployable to SAP BTP Cloud Foundry Read More Technology Blog Posts by Members articles
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