When AI Joins the Dev Team: Automating Umbraco Structure & Workflow

Operations Director at Bluegrass Digital, Mark Hawkins, explains the Umbraco MCP Server hype and shares a few of the development use cases the team at Bluegrass Digital have been implementing.

I had the privilege of attending Umbraco CodeGarden 2025, where Umbraco officially gave the community insights into the upcoming launch of the Developer MCP Server (beta), which has now been released. As an Umbraco Gold Partner, Bluegrass Digital have jumped onboard with POC’s to utilise the MCP Server to deliver smarter, faster, and more efficient solutions for our client projects.

For anyone who has worked with Umbraco, setting up a project structure, including document types, templates, data types, and media, can be a tedious and time-consuming process. Even small mistakes in configuration can lead to hours of troubleshooting later. The MCP Server changes this by turning a pile of boring back-office chores into single conversational actions, enabling AI to take on much of the heavy lifting, automating repetitive development tasks while ensuring accuracy and consistency.

How the MCP Server enhances development (real time-savers)
The MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server allows AI tools to interact directly with the Umbraco CMS in a secure and context-aware way. Key benefits for developers include:

• • Faster project setup – AI can scaffold document types, templates, and site structures from natural language instructions.
  • Streamlined workflows – repetitive setup, bulk updates, and structural changes are handled quickly, freeing developers to focus on integrations, custom features, and client-specific solutions.
  • Bulk changes at scale – find and fix broken links, missing alt text, outdated redirects, generate thumbnails, enforce naming conventions programmatically, or empty SEO fields across thousands of nodes. Script the fix once and run everywhere.
  • Secure, context-aware automation – permissions and environment controls ensure AI operates within defined boundaries, respecting roles, content hierarchies, and site rules, so your agent can’t bulldoze Prod if it doesn’t have rights.

Benefits for Clients and Projects
By using the MCP Server in client projects, it can it help Clients (editors & marketers) work smarter with tangible outcomes:

1. 1. Natural-language updates with governance – CMS Editors can update content by saying “Publish the Q4 pricing update on these 18 product pages and schedule for 08:00 tomorrow,” and it’s executed with the same governance permissions they already have in place.
   2. Quality hygiene checks – regular sweeps for accessibility issues (missing alt text/headings), stale content, orphan pages, 404s or redirect loops, can be automated > reported and > optionally fixed.
   3. Actionable reporting, not just dashboards – asking questions like “Which pages lost organic traffic and have not been updated in X months?” and then doing the fixes is a huge time saver and value add for clients.
   4. Development focus on higher-value work – by freeing up developer’s time, they can concentrate on the strategy, innovation, and client-specific enhancements.

The MCP Server is part of Umbraco’s broader evolution toward AI-assisted development, helping teams build more efficiently while improving project quality.

A Step Forward for the Umbraco Ecosystem
The launch of the MCP Server demonstrates Umbraco’s commitment to integrating AI in meaningful ways. Future updates will expand API coverage, enhance multi-language support, Commerce features, and introduce even more intelligent automation capabilities. For developers and agencies like us, this is an opportunity to elevate the quality, speed, and impact of every project.

Bluegrass Digital: Your Trusted Umbraco Partner
As an Umbraco Gold Partner, Bluegrass Digital is at the forefront of integrating AI tools into development workflows. By combining our deep Umbraco expertise with emerging AI capabilities, we are delivering faster, smarter, and higher-quality projects that help our clients achieve real results.