Carbon Design System
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Carbon MCP

Last updated Jun 30, 2026

Learn how to get started with Carbon MCP, including onboarding and setup, writing effective prompts, and using token conservation techniques to improve AI-assisted development workflows.

Carbon MCP

Carbon MCP (Public Preview)

Carbon MCP is available as a public preview, during this public preview, we are eager to hear from the community on what’s working and what we can optimize. Please consider sharing feedback on your experience to help us improve future releases.

IBMers can immediately start using Carbon MCP by following the onboarding instructions. Non-IBMers can request access using the link below.

IBMers: Onboarding instructions
Non-IBMers: Early access sign-up form
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Model Context Protocol

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open-source standard that enables AI agents or AI applications to securely connect with external tools, data sources, and workflows through a unified integration layer.

Why Carbon MCP?

Instant AI Access to Carbon Design Standards: Carbon MCP lets AI applications or agents query the Carbon Design System for colors, typography, component details, usage guidelines, and other essential context.

Smarter Code Generation: Carbon MCP exposes code examples and documentation that enable AI tools to generate high-fidelity Carbon UI code that follows design and development best practices.

Improved Consistency: Carbon MCP helps designers, developers, and PMs get consistent answers and examples from a shared source of truth, which reduces drift and rework.

MCP tools

Carbon MCP provides these tools to the AI application, which are called as needed during a session:

docs_search Search Carbon Design System and IBM Products documentation, including component guidance, usage, accessibility, and reference docs.

code_search Search Carbon React/Web Components code examples, icons, and pictograms for complete example application files.

get_charts Seach Carbon Charts code examples across React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, Vanilla JS, and HTML.

Resources

Carbon MCP Issue & Feature Tracking
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Summary of content coverage

Details about current coverage is provided below:

@carbon/react

  • Code examples and documentation
  • Example: Button, Tabs, TextInput, etc.
  • Multiple variants per component
  • Complete props and imports

@carbon/web-components

  • Code examples and documentation
  • Example: button, tabs, text-input, etc.
  • Multiple variants per component
  • Complete props and imports

Carbon for IBM Products

  • Code examples and documentation
  • Example: Tearsheets, PageHeader, etc.
  • Multiple variants per component
  • Complete props and imports

Carbon Icons and Pictograms

  • Code examples and documentation
  • Example: Settings, User, UserAvatarFilled, etc.
  • Usage

@carbon/ai-chat

  • Code examples and documentation
  • Example: basic, custom-element, history, etc.
  • Full code examples
  • Complete props and imports

@carbon/charts

  • Chart type descriptions
  • Links to demos
  • Full code examples
  • Complete props and imports

Roadmap

Carbon MCP continues to evolve. We will be adding new tools, expanding content coverage, and optimizing the experience based on user feedback.

Upcoming enablement areas:

  • Carbon Labs context, including code examples and documentation
  • Carbon Patterns context
  • Agentic Carbon migration, supporting migrations from Carbon v10 to v11 and from other design systems to Carbon