Salesforce MCP Explained: Which Server Does What

Salesforce MCP Explained: Which Server Does What

Salesforce MCP is not one product. Salesforce supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the open standard that lets AI clients such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor call tools in other systems, through several servers aimed at different people: hosted servers that give an AI client access to CRM data, a local server for Salesforce developers, and servers for MuleSoft and Heroku. Which one you mean decides who sets it up, what it can do and what it costs.

This guide summarizes each Salesforce MCP offering from Salesforce's own documentation as of 27 September 2026, then compares the approach with a CRM whose MCP server is part of the product. Disclosure: Customermates, the second CRM discussed here, publishes this guide.

At a glance

For business data

Salesforce Hosted MCP Servers expose CRM objects to AI clients. Salesforce announced general availability in April 2026.

For developers

The Salesforce DX MCP server runs locally, uses your Salesforce CLI login and focuses on metadata, deployments, tests and code.

Setup

Hosted servers need an administrator: an External Client App, OAuth and server activation in Setup.

Built-in alternative

A CRM with its own MCP endpoint, such as Customermates, needs no separate server setup; the trade-off is a smaller platform.

The Salesforce MCP servers at a glance

Salesforce Hosted MCP Servers

Salesforce Hosted MCP Servers are the offering most people mean when they search for "Salesforce MCP": a managed MCP endpoint in front of your org's data, so an external AI client can work with accounts, contacts, opportunities and other objects.

What they do. Salesforce provides standard servers with different scopes. The SObject servers come in variants for full access, reads only, create and update without delete, and deletes. Tools include schema lookup, SOQL queries, SOSL search and related-record reads. Further standard servers cover Data 360, Tableau Next, Archive and a Headless 360 server that Salesforce labelled beta in its Summer '26 release guide. Beyond the standard set, custom servers can expose Apex actions, Flows, named queries, API Catalog endpoints and Prompt Builder templates as tools.

Availability. Salesforce announced general availability on 29 April 2026 and describes the servers as available to Enterprise Edition orgs and above. The GitHub community repository confirms the GA status.

Setup and security. An administrator creates an External Client App with the MCP API and refresh-token OAuth scopes and turns the servers on in Setup. Each user then signs in through OAuth, and Salesforce applies that user's object permissions, field-level security and sharing rules to every call. The setup overview describes the steps.

Pricing. We did not find a published price for the hosted MCP servers in Salesforce's official documentation. Ask Salesforce how MCP calls count against your API and consumption limits before a rollout.

The Salesforce DX MCP server

The Salesforce DX MCP server is an open-source (Apache-2.0) server for developers. It runs locally through npx with the @salesforce/mcp package and works with orgs you have already authorized in the Salesforce CLI. Its toolsets cover orgs, metadata, data, users, testing, DevOps, code analysis, Lightning Web Components, Aura and mobile, with more than 60 tools in total. Tools not yet generally available need an explicit flag.

It is the right server when an AI coding assistant should deploy metadata, run Apex tests or query a scratch org. It is not meant as a way for business users to work with CRM data.

MuleSoft and Heroku MCP

MuleSoft offers an MCP connector that lets Mule applications act as MCP servers or clients, so existing integrations can be exposed to AI agents, plus a MuleSoft MCP server for working with the Anypoint Platform. Heroku publishes an open-source MCP server for managing Heroku apps and a remote variant. Both matter for integration and platform teams more than for sales teams.

What Salesforce MCP means in practice

For a sales or service team on Salesforce, the hosted servers make the org's data reachable from the AI client people already use. The strengths are clear: enterprise permissions carry over, standard servers can be limited to read-only access, and custom servers can wrap your own business logic.

The costs are organizational: an administrator must configure the External Client App and choose which servers to enable, the org must be on an eligible edition, and consumption questions need an answer from Salesforce. For large orgs that already run Salesforce, that is a normal part of adoption.

A CRM with a built-in MCP server

A different model is a CRM whose MCP server is part of the product from the start. Customermates exposes one MCP endpoint at /api/v1/mcp on every cloud plan and on self-hosted installations. It uses streamable HTTP and authenticates with OAuth for custom connectors in Claude and ChatGPT, or with an API key for command-line and editor clients. A connected client discovers 49 tools covering contacts, organizations, deals, services, tasks, custom fields, dashboards, webhooks and, on plans with messaging, the unified inbox across email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram.

One control difference matters for evaluation. The Customermates MCP server instructions tell clients to confirm before deletes and sends, but that confirmation happens in the client; once an authorized client calls a tool, the server executes it. Check how your client handles approvals, and start with reads and drafts. See the agentic CRM guide and the MCP documentation.

When to use which

• You run Salesforce and it stays: use the hosted MCP servers, starting with a read-only server for a pilot group, and add custom servers for your own processes.
• You develop on Salesforce: use the DX MCP server in your editor.
• You are choosing a CRM and want AI clients to operate it from day one: a CRM with a built-in MCP server avoids a separate server project. See the Salesforce alternative comparison for the wider trade-offs.
• You use HubSpot: the HubSpot MCP guide covers its remote server.

Frequently asked questions