Adobe Commerce Added an MCP Layer: Your Catalog Is Now an Agent's Tool

On April 9, 2026, Adobe Commerce introduced a new component, described as a "Commerce MCP server," which would enable AI agents to access a store's catalog data in real time. However, a few days later, on April 10, the same request for catalog data returned an error stating "Tool not found: search_catalog." This change was significant, as Adobe had moved its catalog tools to the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) shape, renamed the tool to search_catalog, and wrapped its arguments in a new nested catalog object.

The introduction of this MCP server represented a shift in architecture, transforming the catalog from a traditional data source rendered by the front-end into a tool that AI agents could call at their discretion, with arguments generated by the language model and output read as instructions. This shift had far-reaching consequences that were not immediately apparent in the keynote presentations.

Adobe's announcement of the agentic commerce capabilities was accompanied by three main components: the Commerce MCP server, the developer MCP servers, and the support for the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) and Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). The Commerce MCP server was the primary focus of the article, serving as the runtime piece that standardized how product data, business rules, and transactional context were presented to language models.

The developer MCP servers, on the other hand, were separate and focused on providing extensibility tools for developers, such as the Adobe Commerce App Builder MCP server and a drop-in server for the AEM Boilerplate Commerce starter kit.

The UCP and ACP protocols, released by Google, Shopify, OpenAI, and Stripe respectively, were designed to cover the entire commerce journey, from catalog, cart, and checkout to post-purchase flows. However, Adobe's implementation of these protocols was not yet publicly detailed, and the exact tool names, input and output schemas, authentication models, rate limits, and data freshness were not disclosed.

In summary, Adobe Commerce's introduction of the MCP server marked a significant architectural shift, treating the catalog as a tool that AI agents could call. This change had implications for how developers built and maintained their storefronts, as the consumer was now a language model that interacted with the catalog in a different manner than traditional front-end rendering.

Adobe's announcement of the agentic commerce capabilities spanned multiple layers, including MCP, ACP, and UCP, but the specifics of these components were yet to be fully understood.