MCP Tool Catalog

ArcGIS Enterprise exposes a platform-wide set of Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools that allow AI applications and agents to discover, describe, and invoke the GIS capabilities of your ArcGIS Enterprise environment.

This page is the central catalog of every default MCP tool available once MCP is enabled on your ArcGIS Enterprise deployment. The tools cover four broad capability areas:

  • Content and data — search the portal for items, describe items and layers, and query records.
  • Mapping — render static map images for screen, print, or vector editing.
  • Location services — find address candidates, reverse-geocode, and solve routes between locations.
  • Geoprocessing — invoke GP tasks, retrieve GP task definitions, and check the status of asynchronous jobs.

Click a tool alias in the table to open its dedicated reference page, where you will find its tool name, alias, objective, description, schema, and sample prompts.

Tip If you are new to MCP, start with MCP in ArcGIS Enterprise and then follow the Get Started document to proceed with testing.

Available tools

Tool Alias Tool Name Tool Type Tool Description
Search Portal Content search_portal_content Default Discover ArcGIS Portal items in your organization—web maps, feature services, dashboards, and more. Supports structured filters and raw passthrough queries.
Describe Item describe_item Default Retrieve full information about a specific portal item by its item ID, including the service definition for service items and the data JSON for non-service items.
Describe Layer describe_layer Default Describe a layer or table inside a feature service or map service—fields, geometry type, capabilities, and example values. Used before running a query.
Query Data query_data Default Query a feature layer or table for records using SQL WHERE clauses, spatial filters, pagination, sorting, and statistical aggregations.
Get Map Image get_map_image Default Export a map image from a map service. Supports extent, image size, format, layer visibility, attribute filters, and time extent.
Find Address Candidates find_address_candidates Default Forward-geocode an address, place name, postal code, or POI to one or more candidate locations using a configured geocoding service.
Reverse Geocode reverse_geocode Default Convert a longitude/latitude coordinate to the nearest street address or place name.
Solve Route solve_route Default Solve a route between a start and end location, optionally with intermediate stops and a travel mode such as driving, walking, or trucking.
Get GP Task Definition get_gp_task_definition Default Retrieve the description and input/output schema of a geoprocessing task on a GPServer. Used to inspect a task before invoking it.
Get GP Task Job Status get_gp_task_job_status Default Check the current status of an asynchronous geoprocessing job by its job ID.
Get Search Portal Content Passthrough Instructions get_search_portal_content_
passthrough_instructions		 Default Return guidance for building a raw passthrough q string when a structured search of search_portal_content cannot satisfy the request.

Note All tools listed above are default tools that are part of every ArcGIS Enterprise deployment that has MCP enabled. You can also add your own custom tools by exposing geoprocessing tasks—see Expose Custom GP Tasks as Custom MCP Tools. Custom tools are deployment-specific and appear only where the corresponding GP service has been tagged.

How tools are documented

Each tool page follows a consistent structure so you know exactly where to look:

  • Tool Name — The canonical (snake_case) identifier MCP clients use to invoke the tool.
  • Tool Alias — The human-readable display name for the tool.
  • Objective — A one-line summary of what the tool is for.
  • Description — A longer explanation of how the tool works, when to use it, and when not to.
  • Schema — The input parameters the tool accepts and the shape of the response it returns.
  • Sample prompts — Example natural-language prompts you can send to an MCP client to exercise the tool.