"}],"short_description":"Step into the Developer's Lounge to discover what Software Development Lead, Luke Smallwood, has to say about ArcGIS and MCP clients","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2975680,"id":2975680,"title":"8555250-dev-lounge-luke 4 (2)","filename":"8555250-dev-lounge-luke-4-2-scaled.png","filesize":1336115,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8555250-dev-lounge-luke-4-2-scaled.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/developers\/geoai\/developers-lounge-exposing-location-services-to-model-context-protocol-mcp-clients\/8555250-dev-lounge-luke-4-2","alt":"","author":"341472","description":"Developer's Lounge: Luke Smallwood","caption":"","name":"8555250-dev-lounge-luke-4-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2975479,"date":"2026-07-08 16:03:07","modified":"2026-07-08 16:04:33","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2560,"height":1441,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8555250-dev-lounge-luke-4-2-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8555250-dev-lounge-luke-4-2-scaled.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":261,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8555250-dev-lounge-luke-4-2-scaled.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":432,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8555250-dev-lounge-luke-4-2-scaled.png","large-width":1920,"large-height":1080,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8555250-dev-lounge-luke-4-2-1536x865.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":865,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8555250-dev-lounge-luke-4-2-2048x1153.png","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1153,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8555250-dev-lounge-luke-4-2-826x465.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":465,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8555250-dev-lounge-luke-4-2-1918x1080.png","wide_image-width":1918,"wide_image-height":1080}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"In this episode of Developer’s Lounge<\/a>, Luke Smallwood, a software development team lead at Esri, reflects on his own journey as a developer and offers a behind-the-scenes look at how his team is shaping the future of geospatial AI.<\/p>\n With the recent release of ArcGIS Location Platform<\/a>, the team is extending ArcGIS capabilities to Model Context Protocol (MCP) clients, giving developers broader access to location services and accelerating the pace at which they can build and deploy applications. It’s a significant step in Esri’s ongoing mission to bring the power of ArcGIS to new platforms and audiences.<\/p>\n In this conversation, Luke takes us deeper into his team’s work \u2014 the problems they’re solving, the vision driving their decisions, and what it means for developers embracing AI-driven workflows.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","content":" \"For me, the key point about the MCP support for ArcGIS Location Services is that it gives users easy access to location insights. Without writing a single line of code, you can empower an agent to answer questions about a location of interest. That brings the power of spatial information to new audiences with as little friction as possible.\" - Luke Smallwood<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" I did some BBC BASIC back in high school, and the main thing I took away was the importance of leaving gaps between the numbers of your lines, so you could insert something later without having to update the entire code.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The first time I remember being really excited about coding was in a Java module as part of my GIS masters at university. We were introduced to some of the concepts of Object-Oriented Programming, with the exercise being to model a goldfish. Ironically, my memory of the goldfish program is pretty hazy, but I do remember excitedly showing my partner that I could type in a number to feed the fish, and it would get bigger. Somehow, she failed to grasp the full significance of that but here I am twenty something years later, still feeding those fish!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At Esri, I am a Group Software Development Lead tasked with creating developer-focused location services. I collaborate with devOps, software, and product engineers to develop full-stack solutions that scale to meet our customers\u2019 needs. My role involves a huge amount of variety, including: <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I really love the fact that each day is different and that I get to collaborate with a great bunch of people to solve new and challenging problems.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" My team builds location services<\/a> for developers. One of our key missions has always been to share the amazing GIS functionality that Esri creates with new users. In the past we\u2019ve looked to make new RESTful APIs as developer friendly as possible by adopting standards like OpenAPI but we\u2019re always on the look-out for ways to make things more accessible. <\/span><\/p>\n MCP is a game-changer in that space, because the protocol means that any client can instantly learn about and access our technology. And for me, the really powerful part is that, by following this protocol, we can collaborate <\/span>with <\/span><\/i>AI technologies to offer a clear, structured API over our authoritative RESTful services. That means less work is left to an AI to figure out for itself, and results can be more accurate and more predictable for the end user.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As to how we got started with MCP, it actually grew out of an R&D project that some of our engineers picked up at the end of 2025 because they thought it sounded kind of cool. Then we looked at what they had built, and we all started to think it sounded interesting. And the more we looked into it, we started thinking it was actually quite important.\u00a0 We started speaking to users about it and realized it was going to be essential.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Learning about MCP, and the AI landscape, has been a huge learning curve for my team \u2013 but it\u2019s something that we are really excited to share with users.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"kaltura","video_id":"1_wdji0vu4","time":false,"start":0},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" <\/p>\n At the moment, we are focusing on empowering MCP agents with a broad set of functionality that covers the range of location services at Esri. We\u2019ve got tools that provide:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019<\/span>ll<\/span> be <\/span>roll<\/span>ing<\/span> out <\/span>additional<\/span> features and <\/span>capabilities from other services<\/span> (such as <\/span>Geo<\/span>E<\/span>nrichment<\/span> and place finding)<\/span> in<\/span> the coming months \u2013 so join the Early Adopter Community and<\/span> stay tuned!<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For me, the key point about the MCP support for ArcGIS Location Services is that it gives users easy access to location insights. Without writing a single line of code, you can empow<\/span>er an agent to answer questions about a location of interest. That brings the power of spatial information to new audiences with as little friction as possible.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We are concentrating on building something that is <\/span>standard<\/span>-com<\/span>pliant, secure,<\/span> hosted and backed by <\/span>our <\/span>detailed knowledge of the underlying technology<\/span>. <\/span><\/span>W<\/span>e\u2019re<\/span> doing the <\/span>hard work<\/span> so that all a developer needs to do is point their <\/span>MCP <\/span>client at the <\/span>U<\/span>RL, provide authentication and they ha<\/span>ve a<\/span>ccess to location intelligence.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A real light-bulb moment for me was understanding that a single prompt can access several of our tools in one go. To begin with, if I wanted to display a route map, I would spoon feed the agent by asking:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That worked, but with access to all the tools, the agent can combine them much more effectively if I just say: <\/span>\u201cGive me a map of the route from this address to that one\u201d<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2975490,"id":2975490,"title":"MCP prompt","filename":"MCP-prompt.png","filesize":416422,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCP-prompt.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/developers\/geoai\/developers-lounge-exposing-location-services-to-model-context-protocol-mcp-clients\/mcp-prompt","alt":"","author":"341472","description":"Model Context Protocol prompt","caption":"","name":"mcp-prompt","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2975479,"date":"2026-07-07 22:04:22","modified":"2026-07-07 22:04:40","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1570,"height":860,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCP-prompt-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCP-prompt.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":254,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCP-prompt.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":421,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCP-prompt.png","large-width":1570,"large-height":860,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCP-prompt-1536x841.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":841,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCP-prompt.png","2048x2048-width":1570,"2048x2048-height":860,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCP-prompt-826x452.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":452,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCP-prompt.png","wide_image-width":1570,"wide_image-height":860}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCP-prompt.png"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" Some other good prompts are:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You can see more details of these example prompts on our documentation site<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our documentation guides<\/a><\/span>\u00a0provide a great place to get started: they walk you through setting up authentication and have examples for configuring a range of clients such as GitHub Copilot, m365 and Claude. I\u2019d also recommend that people check out the Model Context Protocol<\/a> Getting Started page <\/span>for an overview of the technology.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s an example of connecting the MCP for ArcGIS Location Services to AWS Bedrock:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2975492,"id":2975492,"title":"mcp_with_aws","filename":"mcp_with_aws.png","filesize":1735324,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mcp_with_aws.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/developers\/geoai\/developers-lounge-exposing-location-services-to-model-context-protocol-mcp-clients\/mcp_with_aws","alt":"","author":"341472","description":"Model Context Protocol (MCP) for ArcGIS Location Services to AWS","caption":"","name":"mcp_with_aws","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2975479,"date":"2026-07-07 22:06:08","modified":"2026-07-07 22:08:22","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1927,"height":986,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mcp_with_aws-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mcp_with_aws.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":237,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mcp_with_aws.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":393,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mcp_with_aws.png","large-width":1920,"large-height":982,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mcp_with_aws-1536x786.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":786,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mcp_with_aws.png","2048x2048-width":1927,"2048x2048-height":986,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mcp_with_aws-826x423.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":423,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mcp_with_aws-1920x982.png","wide_image-width":1920,"wide_image-height":982}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mcp_with_aws.png"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" <\/p>\n<\/h4>\n
1. Hello, Luke! <\/span>What\u2019s<\/span> the story behind your first line of code, and how did it lead you to where you are today?<\/span> <\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
<\/h4>\n
2. One of the <\/span>major <\/span>projects y<\/span>our team has been <\/span>working on<\/span> is<\/span> exposing ArcGIS Location<\/span> Services<\/span> to <\/span>Model Context Protocol (MCP) clients<\/span>. <\/span>Can<\/span> you share <\/span>how this began and <\/span>why you <\/span>believe<\/span> there <\/span>is<\/span> a need f<\/span>or <\/span>it<\/span>?<\/span> <\/strong><\/h4>\n
3. W<\/span>hat location services are currently being exposed to MCP clients?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
4. Why do you think this is important to developers and their AI workflows<\/span>?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n
5. Could you <\/span>provide some practical examples for prompts developers<\/span> can <\/span>use to be more effective as they <\/span>leverage<\/span> this offering?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
\n
6. How can developers access the MCP server to add geospatial capabilities from ArcGIS to their workflow?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n
<\/h4>\n
7. MCP support for ArcGIS Location Services is currently in <\/span>beta<\/span>. W<\/span>hat does this mean for <\/span>users,<\/span> and<\/span> how can they test the <\/span>functionality<\/span>?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n