Table of contents
Is there an official Salesforce MCP server? Yes - actually four of them, and the fragmentation trips people up constantly. Salesforce Hosted MCP Servers, Agentforce’s native MCP client, the Salesforce DX MCP Server, and the Marketing Cloud Engagement MCP Server all carry the MCP name, but they solve different problems for different people.
This information is correct as of September 2026.
If your team is already weighing up MCP against calling a tool’s API directly, or you want the basics of the protocol first, our MCP introduction is the place to start. Here’s what Salesforce actually ships, how to set up the one marketing teams care about most, and how the four compare.
Four things called “Salesforce MCP server” (they’re not the same thing)
Salesforce Hosted MCP Servers (GA, April 2026)
Salesforce’s own hosted MCP servers reached general availability in April 2026, for every Enterprise Edition org and above. A hosted MCP server is a Salesforce-managed endpoint that exposes your org’s data, flows, Apex actions and queries to any MCP-compatible client - Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Postman, or a custom agent. Salesforce hosts and scales it, the same way it does for the REST APIs most orgs already use, and every transaction runs as the authenticated user, so existing CRUD, field-level security and sharing rules apply automatically.
Standard servers ship pre-configured with a fixed tool set, including SObject All (full CRUD, query and search across Salesforce objects), Metadata Experts, Salesforce API Context, and a Headless 360 (Beta) server that exposes Setup and platform capabilities - the same Headless 360 push Salesforce announced at TDX, which we’ve covered in more detail elsewhere. Admins can also configure custom servers exposing specific flows or Apex actions.
Agentforce’s native MCP client (Beta)
This is the mirror image of the point above. Where Hosted MCP Servers let outside AI clients read from Salesforce, Agentforce’s native MCP client lets Agentforce agents call out to external MCP servers as tools - registered through the Agentforce Registry in Setup, with an admin controlling which servers and tools are allowlisted. It entered pilot in July 2025 and has been in Beta since January 2026, with no published GA date yet.
Salesforce DX MCP Server (Beta)
A local, CLI-based MCP server for developers, distributed as the @salesforce/mcp npm package (salesforcecli/mcp on GitHub). It runs against a Salesforce DX project via a client like VS Code or Claude Code, exposing toolsets for orgs, metadata, data, users, code analysis and Apex testing. It has nothing to do with CRM data access for marketing or sales use cases - it’s for people building on the platform.
Marketing Cloud Engagement MCP Server (GA, June 2026)
Salesforce’s first-party, hosted MCP server for Marketing Cloud Engagement reached general availability in June 2026. It lets any MCP-compatible agent manage data extensions, journeys and automations in plain language, without writing code or opening the MCE UI. It’s set up through an Installed Package in MCE rather than through Salesforce’s core Setup menu, and standard Marketing Cloud API limits still apply.
Setting up Salesforce Hosted MCP Servers
For most marketing and RevOps teams, Hosted MCP Servers are the one worth connecting first:
- Confirm edition. You need Enterprise Edition or above; Hosted MCP Servers aren’t available on lower tiers.
- Enable the servers. From Setup, search “MCP Servers” and select it under API Catalog. Review the list of standard servers (SObject All, Metadata Experts, Salesforce API Context, and others) and toggle on the ones your team needs. It can take up to two minutes for a server to go active.
- Create an External Client App. A System Administrator (or equivalent) registers the connecting MCP client as an OAuth application, which is where the authentication credentials come from.
- Configure OAuth scopes and security. Grant the scopes each server needs, and enable PKCE and JWT-based tokens for standards-based authentication.
- Connect your client. Point Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or another MCP-compatible client at the server using the OAuth credentials from step 3.
Permissions are inherited from the connecting user, not expanded, so an agent only ever sees what that Salesforce user’s account can already see.
Marketing and GTM use cases
Once connected, the practical value for a marketing or GTM team looks like:
- Pipeline and deal queries via AI agents - asking an agent which deals in a target list haven’t been touched in two weeks, answered from live CRM data via the SObject All server rather than a stale export.
- Campaign-to-CRM sync - reading campaign and lead data from Salesforce directly into a planning conversation, instead of switching to the CRM dashboard.
- MCE-driven journey and audience queries - using the Marketing Cloud Engagement MCP Server to have an agent check or adjust a journey’s entry source, review a data extension, or draft a new sendable audience in natural language.
Salesforce MCP options compared
| Hosted MCP Servers | Agentforce MCP client | Salesforce DX MCP Server | MCE MCP Server | Self-hosted / community option | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status | GA, April 2026 | Beta, since January 2026 | Beta (formerly developer preview) | GA, June 2026 | Independent, maintenance varies |
| Purpose | Expose org data, flows and Apex outward to external AI clients | Let Agentforce agents consume external MCP servers as tools | Local development tasks: Apex, metadata, code analysis, org management | Manage MCE data extensions, journeys and automations via AI | Fills gaps like custom coverage or fully unattended access |
| Hosting | Remote, hosted by Salesforce | Runs inside the Agentforce/Salesforce org | Local, CLI-based (npx @salesforce/mcp) | Remote, hosted by Salesforce (US or EU endpoint) | Self-hosted, local or your own deployment |
| Auth | OAuth 2.0 + PKCE via an External Client App; inherits the connecting user’s CRUD/FLS/sharing rules | Registered per-server in the Agentforce Registry; OAuth 2.0 if the external server requires it | Local Salesforce CLI org authentication | Installed Package (API Integration, Public App) scoped OAuth | Private app token or per-user OAuth, depending on the project |
| Best for | Any MCP client reading or writing core CRM objects | Admins connecting Agentforce agents to outside tools | Developers building or testing on a Salesforce DX project | Marketing teams running MCE campaigns, journeys and audiences | Teams needing custom coverage or headless, unattended access |
For most marketing teams, Hosted MCP Servers and the MCE MCP Server are the two that matter: one for CRM data, one for campaign execution. The Agentforce MCP client and the Salesforce DX MCP Server are worth knowing about, but they’re an admin’s and a developer’s problem respectively. See the full MCP servers list for how Salesforce’s servers fit alongside the rest of a marketing team’s stack.
About Growth Method
Salesforce ships four different things called an MCP server because “give an AI agent access to our platform” means something different depending on whether you’re a developer, an admin, or a marketer running campaigns. Growth Method is built for the marketer’s version of that problem: the agentic marketing platform for B2B teams, where a campaign’s hypothesis, plan and results live in one place an AI agent can act on directly. Connect Salesforce or Marketing Cloud Engagement alongside GA4, PostHog and the rest of your stack, and both your team and its agents can plan, launch and analyse campaigns from the same live CRM data these MCP servers expose, rather than a stale export.
Get started to connect your stack and run your next campaign from live CRM data, not a static export.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official Salesforce MCP server?
Yes, actually four. Salesforce Hosted MCP Servers reached general availability in April 2026, exposing core CRM data and logic to any MCP-compatible client such as Claude or ChatGPT. Agentforce also ships a native MCP client (Beta since January 2026) that lets Agentforce agents pull in tools from external MCP servers, the opposite direction. Separately, the Salesforce DX MCP Server (Beta) is a local, developer-only tool for Salesforce CLI projects, and the Marketing Cloud Engagement MCP Server reached GA in June 2026 for managing journeys, data extensions and automations. Most marketing teams want the first or the fourth.
What’s the difference between Hosted MCP Servers and the Agentforce MCP client?
Direction. Hosted MCP Servers expose your org’s data, flows and Apex actions to external AI clients such as Claude or Cursor, with Salesforce acting as the server. Agentforce’s MCP client is the opposite: it lets Agentforce agents consume external MCP servers as tools, with Salesforce acting as the client. If you want an outside AI tool reading your CRM, you want Hosted MCP Servers; if you want an Agentforce agent calling out to another system, you want the Agentforce MCP client.
Do I need a specific Salesforce edition, and does it cost extra?
Hosted MCP Servers require Enterprise Edition or above. Salesforce hasn’t published a separate licence fee or detailed SLAs for the MCP layer itself beyond that edition requirement, so it’s worth confirming current terms with your account team before relying on it in production. The Marketing Cloud Engagement MCP Server ships as part of MCE and is subject to standard Marketing Cloud API limits. The Salesforce DX MCP Server and the Agentforce MCP client are both still Beta, so terms can change before general availability.
Is any of this relevant to a marketing team, or is it all for developers and admins?
Both. Hosted MCP Servers’ standard SObject-All server gives any connected AI client read and write access to marketing-relevant CRM objects like leads, campaigns and opportunities, useful for pipeline and campaign-to-CRM queries. The Marketing Cloud Engagement MCP Server is built specifically for marketers, covering data extensions, journeys and automations. The Agentforce MCP client and the Salesforce DX MCP Server are admin and developer tooling respectively, and not something a marketing team would typically set up or use day to day.