Using Kanzi AI tools

Kanzi provides AI tools that help you find information, understand Kanzi concepts and APIs, and get unblocked faster:

  • Ask Kanzi is the AI assistant built into the Documentation at https://docs.kanzi.com without any extra setup, just click the Ask Kanzi button at the top right of any documentation page to open it.

  • MCP servers connect your own AI coding agent, such as Claude Code, VS Code, Cursor, and similar, to the same underlying Documentation and API references, and to your Kanzi Account. Useful when you want to query Kanzi — or manage your Kanzi licenses and account — from inside your editor or agent.

Quick setup

The fastest way to use Kanzi from your own AI coding agent is to let the agent set itself up. Your agent must be able to fetch a URL and to edit files and run commands on your machine. Paste this into your agent:

Fetch https://docs.kanzi.com/agent-setup/prompt.md and follow it.

The agent reads the instructions and registers the Kanzi MCP servers for you: it writes the server entries into your user-scope MCP configuration and runs the setup commands directly, so you do not configure anything by hand. The documentation and API servers are ready right away; the Portal server additionally asks you to sign in to your Kanzi Account the first time your tool uses it. This works with Claude Code, VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, and any other tool that supports MCP.

When the agent finishes, start a new chat so your tool loads the new servers. Then ask a Kanzi question to confirm the tools respond, for example “Using the Kanzi docs tools, how do data sources work in Kanzi 4.1?”.

To configure the servers by hand instead, see MCP servers.

Ask Kanzi

Ask Kanzi is grounded in the Documentation and API references, so it answers from verified content rather than from general training data. You can ask conceptual questions (“How do data sources work?”), how-to questions (“How do I bind a property to a data source value?”), API questions (“What is the signature of kanzi::Node::setProperty in Kanzi 4.1?”), or migration questions (“What changed in render passes between Kanzi 3.9.15 and 4.0.0?”).

Key things to know:

  • Page context. When you open Ask Kanzi from a documentation page, Ask Kanzi automatically uses that page as context, so you can ask follow-up questions about it without copy-pasting. Ask Kanzi shows the current page as a pill above the chat input. Click the × on the pill to remove the page from the context.

  • Selection context. Select any text on the page before opening Ask Kanzi, and that selection becomes additional context. This is useful when you want to ask about a specific code snippet, table cell, or paragraph.

  • Version. Ask Kanzi grounds its answer in the Kanzi version that matches the documentation page you opened it from.

  • Sources. Each answer lists the documentation pages it was based on. Click a source to open it in a new tab and verify the answer in context.

  • Find in chat. In the panel header, click the magnifier glass icon and type to find text in the current conversation. Use the up and down arrows (or Enter and Shift+Enter) to step through found terms. Press Esc or click the close button to clear the highlights.

  • New chat. In the panel header, click the pencil icon to clear the current conversation and start a new chat.

MCP servers

Kanzi MCP servers are built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard for connecting AI assistants to external tools and data sources. After you connect a Kanzi MCP server to your AI assistant, the assistant can use the tools that the server provides to look up Kanzi information and answer your questions.

Kanzi provides three MCP servers. The documentation and API servers are public: they require no authentication and serve every Kanzi version, which you select from within the tools. The Portal server connects to your Kanzi Account, so it requires you to sign in and works within your Kanzi Portal permissions.

  • Kanzi documentation MCP server at https://docs.mcp.kanzi.com/mcp connects your AI assistant to the Kanzi documentation. Use it to get answers about Kanzi concepts, features, workflows, and best practices.

  • Kanzi API MCP server at https://api.mcp.kanzi.com connects your AI assistant to the Kanzi API reference. Use it to look up API signatures, check deprecation status, find include directives, and compare APIs between Kanzi versions.

  • Kanzi Portal MCP server at https://portal.kanzi.com/api/mcp connects your AI assistant to your Kanzi Account in the Kanzi Portal. Use it to query and manage your licenses, organizations, downloads, support tickets, and API keys in natural language.

The quickest way to add the servers is the one-step Quick setup. To add a server by hand, use your tool’s MCP configuration:

AI tool

How to add a server

Claude Code

Run claude mcp add --scope user --transport http <name> <url>.

VS Code

Add the server to mcp.json (open it with MCP: Open User Configuration).

Cursor

Add the server to ~/.cursor/mcp.json.

Windsurf

Add the server to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json.

Claude Desktop

Install the one-click .mcpb bundle instead of adding a URL. See Kanzi Documentation MCP server and Kanzi API MCP server.

Codex

Add the server to ~/.codex/config.toml.

Any other MCP tool without direct HTTP support

Bridge the server with npx -y mcp-remote <url>.

Use https://docs.mcp.kanzi.com/mcp as <url> for the documentation server, https://api.mcp.kanzi.com for the API server, and https://portal.kanzi.com/api/mcp for the Portal server. The Portal server needs a tool with native HTTP MCP support and a one-time sign-in; the mcp-remote bridge does not work for it. For the full step-by-step configuration in each tool, see Kanzi Documentation MCP server, Kanzi API MCP server, and Kanzi Portal MCP server.

Tips for working with Kanzi AI tools

  • Be specific in your questions. For example, instead of asking “How do bindings work?”, ask “How do I create a binding in Kanzi Studio that changes the color of a node based on a data source value?”.

  • When asking about API use, mention the programming language and Kanzi version that you are using. Most MCP server tools answer for one Kanzi version at a time, and they do not remember a version between questions. When you name the version, the assistant passes it to the tools. Otherwise the tools answer for the newest version available.

  • You can ask for verification of API signatures, check for deprecations, and suggest replacements for deprecated APIs.

  • When migrating between Kanzi versions, use the Kanzi API MCP server with your AI assistant to compare APIs between versions. This helps you identify what changed and estimate the migration effort.