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Quickstart

Get ARC-1 talking to your SAP system in five minutes. Zero install, Basic Auth, Claude Desktop.

If this path doesn't match you — SSO-only SAP, Docker, BTP, a team server — skip straight to:

  • Local development — full local dev (npx / npm / Docker / git-clone), .env patterns, SSO cookie extractor
  • Deployment — multi-user / production (Docker, BTP Cloud Foundry, BTP ABAP)

Prerequisites

  • Node.js 22+
  • Network access to a SAP system (dev/sandbox ideally)
  • A SAP user + password with ADT authorizations

That's it. No global install, no config files.

1. Verify ARC-1 can reach your SAP

npx arc-1@latest --url https://your-sap-host:44300 \
                 --user YOUR_USER --password YOUR_PASS \
                 --client 100

You should see a startup line like:

INFO: auth: MCP=[none] SAP=basic (shared)
INFO: ARC-1 MCP server running on stdio

Hit Ctrl+C to stop. If this failed, check TLS (--insecure for self-signed dev certs), the client number, and that the user can log into SE80 via the web GUI.

2. Wire it into Claude Desktop

Edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows) and pick one of the two paths below.

Path A — read and search only

viewer is the same as the built-in default, but keeping it explicit makes the intent obvious in local configs.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sap": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "arc-1@latest"],
      "env": {
        "SAP_URL": "https://your-sap-host:44300",
        "SAP_USER": "YOUR_USER",
        "SAP_PASSWORD": "YOUR_PASS",
        "SAP_CLIENT": "100",
        "ARC1_PROFILE": "viewer"
      }
    }
  }
}

What you just got — read-only by default

Capability Result
Writes Off
Free SQL Off
Named table preview Off
Transports Off
Package scope $TMP if you later enable writes

Path B — full local development

Same structure as Path A — only the env block changes. Use this only on a dev or sandbox system you are comfortable modifying.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sap": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "arc-1@latest"],
      "env": {
        "SAP_URL": "https://your-sap-host:44300",
        "SAP_USER": "YOUR_USER",
        "SAP_PASSWORD": "YOUR_PASS",
        "SAP_CLIENT": "100",
        "ARC1_PROFILE": "developer-sql",
        "SAP_ALLOWED_PACKAGES": "*"
      }
    }
  }
}

What you just got — writes, SQL, data, and transports

Capability Result
Writes On
Free SQL On
Named table preview On
Transports On
Package scope * (all packages)

Need something in between? Start from ARC1_PROFILE=developer for writes in $TMP, or pick a narrower recipe in configuration-reference.md → Common recipes.

Restart Claude Desktop after updating the config. The SAP tools (SAPRead, SAPSearch, etc.) should appear in the tool picker.

Other MCP clients (Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, Gemini CLI, Goose): same shape, see local-development.md.

3. Try a read

In Claude Desktop, ask:

Using the SAP tools, show me the source of report RSPO0041.

Claude should call SAPRead and return the ABAP source.

Next steps