sap-help-mcp

# sap-help-mcp **Stop your AI assistant from guessing at SAP configuration.** This MCP server gives it live access to the two places the answer actually lives: the official SAP documentation on [help.sap.com](https://help.sap.com) and the practitioner knowledge on [community.sap.com](https://community.sap.com). [](https://github.com/aamelin1/sap-help-mcp/actions/workflows/ci.yml) [](https://pypi.org/project/sap-help-mcp/) [](LICENSE) --- ## Quick start **Claude Desktop** — [download the extension](https://github.com/aamelin1/sap-help-mcp/releases/latest/download/sap-help-mcp.mcpb), then open **Settings → Extensions → Advanced settings**, click **Install Extension** and pick the downloaded file. **Claude Code** — `claude mcp add sap-help -- uvx sap-help-mcp@latest` That is all. [Install](#install) below covers the other clients, and [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting) covers what to do if a step misbehaves. --- ## Why Ask a general-purpose model how to configure foreign currency valuation, or what message `F5 702` means, and you get an answer assembled from memory: plausible, often subtly wrong, and impossible to verify. SAP documentation is huge, versioned per release, and mostly invisible to ordinary web search. With this server connected, the assistant searches the portal first and answers from the page it just read — with a link you can open. > **You:** How do I set up a substitution for the profit center in FI documents in ECC? > > **Assistant:** *(calls `help_search`, then `help_read`)* According to > *Substitution in Accounting Documents* (SAP_ERP 6.18) the callup point is 0002 … > — https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_ERP/49fc4b036bc14cceb9bcf1a45e472f20/0eacc2531bb9b44ce10000000a174cb4.html?version=6.18.latest It also reaches the **Support Content** space — the FAQs and troubleshooting guides written by SAP support, the ones that normally sit behind a search box nobody knows about — and the forum, for the "has anyone actually hit this" half of the job. ## What it gives the assistant | Tool | What it does | |---|---| | `help_search(query, product?, version?, limit)` | Search help.sap.com: all SAP product documentation plus the Support Content wiki. | | `help_read(ref, part?)` | Fetch a full help.sap.com page as markdown, paginated for long pages. | | `community_search(query, limit, min_kudos)` | Search SAP Community blogs, Q&A and discussions, ranked on our side. | | `web_status()` | Version, source endpoints, cache state. Useful to confirm the connection works. | **No credentials, no local data, nothing written to disk.** The server only issues anonymous GET requests to public portal endpoints and caches responses in memory for six hours. **SAP Notes are not included.** Reading Notes requires a personal S-user, and this server deliberately holds no secrets. Use [mcp-sap-notes](https://github.com/marianfoo/mcp-sap-notes) alongside it — this server surfaces the Note numbers, that one opens them. --- ## Install ### Option A — one-click bundle (Claude Desktop, Windows and macOS) 1. **[Download sap-help-mcp.mcpb](https://github.com/aamelin1/sap-help-mcp/releases/latest/download/sap-help-mcp.mcpb)** — that link always serves the newest release, so it is the one to pass around. 2. In Claude Desktop, open **Settings → Extensions → Advanced settings**, click **Install Extension** and pick the downloaded `.mcpb` file. 3. The install dialog warns that the extension is not verified by Anthropic and will have access to your computer. That is expected for any bundle installed from a file rather than from Anthropic's directory — decide whether you trust this repository, then confirm. **You do not need Python.** The bundle uses the MCPB `uv` runtime — Claude Desktop downloads a private Python and the dependencies itself, per bundle, and removes them on uninstall. Updating is manual: installing from a file gives Claude Desktop no update source, so a new release means downloading the next `.mcpb` and installing it again. ### Option B — `uvx` (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, anything MCP) Install [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/) once — it is a single self-contained binary: ```powershell # Windows (PowerShell) powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex" ``` ```bash # macOS / Linux curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh ``` **Claude Code** — one command, nothing to edit: ```bash claude mcp add sap-help -- uvx sap-help-mcp@latest ``` **Claude Desktop** — add this block to the `mcpServers` section of your config file (keep any servers already listed there): ```json { "mcpServers": { "sap-help": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["sap-help-mcp@latest"] } } } ``` | | Config file | |---|---| | **Windows** (installer) | `%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json` | | **Windows** (Microsoft Store) | `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json` | | **macOS** | `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json` | If you are unsure which you have, the reliable way is to let the app tell you: open **Settings → Developer → Edit Config**, which opens the file that is actually in use. Then quit Claude Desktop completely (**Cmd+Q** on macOS, **File → Exit** on Windows — closing the window is not enough) and start it again. `uvx` installs the package on first launch, which takes a few seconds once. The `@latest` suffix is what keeps you current, and it is worth understanding why. Plain `uvx sap-help-mcp` resolves the newest version on its *first* run and then reuses its cached environment indefinitely — a new release is not picked up until the cache is refreshed, so you would sit on whatever version you first installed. `@latest` asks for the newest version and refreshes the cache, at the cost of one index lookup per server start. Pin instead if you would rather decide when to move: `"args": ["sap-help-mcp==1.0.1"]`. ### Option C — from a downloaded bundle (restricted networks) The `.mcpb` is a plain zip: the same server, plus a `manifest.json` telling the host how to start it. If PyPI is unreachable but GitHub is not, unpack it and point a client at the unpacked copy — this is what Claude Desktop does internally in option A. ```bash mkdir -p ~/mcp/sap-help && cd ~/mcp/sap-help unzip ~/Downloads/sap-help-mcp.mcpb # Claude Code (use an absolute path — the entry is stored verbatim) claude mcp add sap-help -- \ uv run --directory ~/mcp/sap-help src/sap_help_mcp/__main__.py ``` For Claude Desktop, the equivalent config entry is: ```json { "mcpServers": { "sap-help": { "command": "uv", "args": ["run", "--directory", "/absolute/path/to/mcp/sap-help", "src/sap_help_mcp/__main__.py"] } } } ``` Two caveats. This does not make the server work offline: `uv` still resolves `fastmcp` and `markdownify`, so a package index — or a mirror of one — has to be reachable. And there is no update path: a new release means downloading the next `.mcpb` and unpacking it again. Prefer option B wherever PyPI is available. ### Option D — from source (for development) ```bash git clone https://github.com/aamelin1/sap-help-mcp.git cd sap-help-mcp uv sync --extra dev uv run pytest # offline tests uv run python -m sap_help_mcp.probe # live check against both portals ``` Point a client at the checkout with `"command": "uv", "args": ["run", "--directory", "/abs/path/to/sap-help-mcp", "sap-help-mcp"]`. --- ## Check that it works Ask the AI assistant: **"call SAP-HELP web_status"**. You should get the server version and the portal endpoints back. Then try a real question, e.g. *"search SAP help for document splitting in new general ledger"*. ## Getting good answers out of it * **Queries go to the portals in English** — both sources are English-only. Ask your own question in any language; the assistant is instructed to translate it into SAP terminology itself (*«переоценка валюты»* → *foreign currency valuation*). * **Filter by product line when you know it.** `SAP_ERP` is ECC 6.0, `SAP_S4HANA_ON_PREMISE` and `SAP_S4HANA_CLOUD` are what they say, and `SUPPORT_CONTENT` is the support Expert Content wiki. Without a filter the portal happily returns ByDesign pages. * **Rephrase once or twice if the results are thin.** It helps more than anything else, and the assistant is told to do it. * **The forum is the forum.** `community_search` returns field experience, not truth. Each result carries a `match_score` and a kudos count so quality is visible. --- ## Troubleshooting | Symptom | Cause and fix | |---|---| | Server does not appear in Claude Desktop | The config was edited but the app was not fully restarted. Quit it entirely and reopen. | | Extension fails to install on Windows, mentioning `cryptography`, Rust, or a missing `link.exe` | A 32-bit Python was picked up during install. `cryptography` — a transitive dependency of every MCP server SDK, unused by this server — ships no 32-bit Windows wheel, so it is compiled from source and needs the MSVC linker. 1.0.3 asks uv for a 64-bit interpreter of its own to head this off; if you still hit it, **use option B**, which is unaffected. Installing Visual Studio Build Tools also works, but it is several gigabytes for nothing. | | Install fails with `Missing expected target directory for Python minor version link` | A known uv bug on Windows ([astral-sh/uv#19622](https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/issues/19622)): a dangling junction in uv's managed-Python store that uv cannot repair by itself, usually left behind by an interrupted download. Delete the link and let uv recreate it — in `cmd`: `rmdir "%APPDATA%\uv\python\cpython-3.13-windows-x86_64-none"` then `uv python install 3.13`. Note `rmdir` without `/s`: that removes the junction, not what it points at. If it persists, `rmdir /s /q "%APPDATA%\uv\python"` and install again. | | `spawn uvx ENOENT` | `uvx` is not on the PATH the app inherits. Restart the machine after installing uv, or put the absolute path in `command` (`%USERPROFILE%\.local\bin\uvx.exe`, `~/.local/bin/uvx`). | | Tools return `"Network unreachable or timed out"` | A corporate proxy or firewall is blocking the portals. Check that `help.sap.com` opens in a browser on the same machine. | | Tools return `SAP responded 4xx` | The portal probably changed its undocumented endpoints. Run `uv run python -m sap_help_mcp.probe --raw` and open an issue with the output. | | Search finds nothing sensible | Use the exact English SAP term, a transaction code or a message number; drop the `product` filter. | | Claude Desktop logs | macOS: `~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp-server-sap-help.log` · Windows: `%APPDATA%\Claude\logs\` | ## How it works Roughly 800 lines of Python in four layers: tool declarations, one module per source, and a single place where HTTP happens. [`docs/ARCHITECTURE.md`](docs/ARCHITECTURE.md) covers the three-step page-read chain, the Khoros LiQL ranking problem and the reasoning behind each design decision. ## Contributing Issues and pull requests are welcome. Run `uv run pytest` before submitting; if you touched any portal request shape, also run `uv run python -m sap_help_mcp.probe` and say in the PR that you did — those endpoints are undocumented and only live checks prove anything. ## Legal SAP and other SAP product names are trademarks of SAP SE. This project is not affiliated with SAP. All content reachable through the server remains the property of SAP SE and the respective authors; the server stores and redistributes nothing. See [NOTICE](NOTICE) for third-party attribution, including [mcp-sap-docs](https://github.com/marianfoo/mcp-sap-docs), whose portal request shapes this project builds on. Licensed under the [Apache License 2.0](LICENSE).