Workday Adaptive Planning MCP server: what it reads, what access it needs, how to connect

Workday hosts one Adaptive Planning MCP Server: seven read and lookup tools over OAuth, in Preview with production set for 23 Oct 2026. Verified 21 Oct 2026.

Official remote MCP · read-only tools

Hosting: Remote HTTP, hosted by Workday on regional hostnames. Your URL follows https://<MCP Hostname>/<Tenant>-<Environment>/mcp/?appName=<Instance Code> and is shown on Administration › General Setup. No local server or open-source repo.
Auth: OAuth 2.0 bearer token in the Authorization header. Standalone: an Adaptive Planning OAuth client (scope MCP-Basic, PKCE). Workday-enabled: a Workday API client (authorization code) or an integration system user (JWT bearer).
Read / write: Read-only in practice: all seven documented tools query, search, list or look up. Workday doesn't label the server read-only.
Works with: Any MCP client that can send a bearer token. Workday's product page names Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini but publishes no client-specific steps.
Plan requirement: Adaptive Planning customer. For Preview, accounts still on the MSA must opt in to the Universal Main Service Agreement (UMSA).
Last changed: 2026-09-04: release note last updated (production date moved; standalone setup steps revised; entries undated)
Verification: Verified 21 Oct 2026 by theFinanceStack · confidence: high

What can an agent do with Adaptive Planning through MCP?

It can query plan and actuals data, search planning metadata, read sheet structures and read account formulas, through seven tools that only retrieve information.

Workday lists seven tools in its 2026R2 release notes. None of the documented tools create, change or submit anything.

Good to know

Which tools a user sees depends on their Adaptive permissions, access rules and the tenant's MCP availability settings.
Per Workday, every call follows the public API security model and is audit-logged.
Workday's product page talks about querying and execution.

Can

Run dimensional queries over multidimensional financial data (data-dimensional-query)
Return rows from a modeled planning sheet (data-modeled-query)
Search planning metadata by keyword or by dimension value IDs (metadata-search-by-term, metadata-search-by-ids)
List the planning sheets the user can see and read a sheet's structure (sheet-get, sheet-get-definition)
Show the formula overview for model accounts (model-account-get-formula)

Cannot

Write plan data, submit versions or change models: no write tools are documented
Show data the signed-in user can't see in Adaptive Planning; permissions and access rules apply on every call, per Workday
Run from a local or self-hosted server: Workday only documents its hosted regional endpoints

What access does it get?

It acts as the signed-in Adaptive Planning user, with one documented OAuth scope, MCP-Basic, so the user's own permissions and access rules decide what it can read.

Where	Scopes and permissions (as documented)	Admin requirement
Standalone Adaptive Planning instance	MCP-Basic, the only scope Workday documents, so it can't be narrowed. Least privilege comes from the connected user's access rules. It sits on a Confidential OAuth client with PKCE. The access token is a signed JWT naming the tenant, environment, instance code and user; Workday's example shows a lifetime of 3,599 seconds, and refresh tokens rotate on use.	Registering the OAuth client needs Admin Access and General Setup permissions, per Workday.
Workday-enabled Adaptive Planning instance	Not documented as a named MCP scope. A Workday API client (authorization code grant) or an integration system user mapped to an Adaptive user (JWT bearer grant) obtains the token. That token is exchanged for an Adaptive API token unless UPAS is enabled.	Administrators need the Set Up: Tenant Setup - Security, Set Up: Adaptive Planning API Access and Security Administration domains, per Workday.

How do I connect it?

Register an OAuth client (standalone instances) or get a Workday-issued token (Workday-enabled instances), then point your AI client at your instance's MCP URL. Workday documents the setup in a six-page configuration PDF. There's no one-click connector.

Standalone instances only: an Adaptive admin registers an OAuth client under Administration › OAuth Client › Add New: Client Type Confidential, scope MCP-Basic, and the redirect URL your client documents.
Copy your MCP URL from Administration › General Setup.
In Claude, open Customize › Connectors › Add custom connector, paste the URL and enter the client ID and secret under Advanced settings.
Team/Enterprise: an Owner adds the custom connector for the organisation.

These steps fit standalone instances. Workday-enabled instances get their token from a Workday API client or integration system user, swapped for an Adaptive token unless UPAS is on. Workday doesn't document an in-client OAuth flow for them, so use the bearer-header method (Claude Code tab). Workday names Claude but doesn't document Claude.ai steps or confirm that Claude's sign-in flow completes. Test it in your Preview environment first.

What should a finance team watch for?

The main watch-points are the Preview status, hand-managed tokens and secrets, and how much a broadly permissioned user can expose to an AI model.

Preview opened 15 Aug 2026 and production is scheduled for 23 Oct 2026. Workday has moved that date before. The example hostnames in the PDF are Preview hosts (api-us.prvw.adaptiveplanning.com and five other regions). Workday hasn't published production hostnames or post-production plan terms (the UMSA condition is stated for Preview). After 23 Oct 2026, use the URL shown on Administration › General Setup and recheck this page's verified date.
Workday doesn't state rate limits or row caps for MCP calls.
Workday says to copy the client secret immediately and store it in a password manager or vault. Tokens pasted into a client config sit in plain text there, so keep that file out of source control.
Least privilege depends on the user you connect as. Use a dedicated Adaptive user (or integration system user) whose access rules cover only the sheets and levels the agent needs.
All tool calls are audit-logged; reading the log through the audits API needs Admin Access and Activity Auditing, per Workday.
None of the seven documented tools writes. Workday's product page still talks about querying and execution. Sheet names and metadata are free text that the agent reads. If the same chat has write-capable tools for other systems, keep human approval on there.
Workday's release note says nothing about AI training. Check Workday's agreement (UMSA) and your AI provider's terms.

How could finance teams and accounting firms use it?

Because every documented tool reads, the fit is questions and reporting on plan, forecast and actuals data, with any change still made by a person in Adaptive.

Inside a company

Ask for budget against actuals for a department or account and get the figures from a dimensional query. Actuals are as current as the last load into Adaptive from the ERP, so this doesn't replace the general ledger or a closed-period report.
Find where a metric lives by searching metadata before building a variance commentary.
Explain how a model account is calculated by reading its formula overview.
Pull rows from a modeled sheet, such as a headcount plan, to draft a forecast note for review.

At an accounting firm

Answer a client's planning question in a meeting from their Adaptive instance, under a user limited to that client's data.
List a client's sheets and their structure to scope an FP&A engagement.
Check model account formulas while reviewing a client's forecast logic.
Give each staff member their own Adaptive user so the audit log ties each tool call to a named user. Workday doesn't document whether an extra Adaptive user or integration system user uses a licence, and a firm would need one in each client's instance.

Any change to plans, versions or the general ledger stays with a person in Adaptive Planning or the source system.

Want Adaptive Planning connected to Claude for your team?

We set up a dedicated, least-privilege Adaptive user and the token handling. Fixed fee.

Book a 30-minute setup call

Change log

Date	Change	Source
2026-10-21	Re-verified: seven read tools; MCP URL format, regional Preview hostnames and the MCP-Basic scope are in Workday's public configuration PDF	doc.workday.com/content/dam/ilx/external-files/untranslated/
2026-09-04	Release note last updated (its change-log entries are undated): production date moved to 23 Oct 2026; configuration steps for standalone instances revised	doc.workday.com/adaptive-planning/en-us/what-s-new/releases/
2026-08-15	Adaptive Planning MCP Server released to Preview (2026R2)	doc.workday.com/adaptive-planning/en-us/what-s-new/releases/

FAQ

Is this official?

Yes. Workday documents the Adaptive Planning MCP Server in its 2026R2 release notes and hosts it. It is separate from Workday's Agent-Ready Tools.

Is it free?

Workday doesn't list a separate MCP price. You need Adaptive Planning, and Preview use requires the UMSA if your agreement still shows MSA.

Does it change data in Adaptive Planning?

No documented tool does. All seven query, search, list or look up.

Is my data used to train models?

Workday's MCP release note doesn't say. Check Workday's agreement and your AI provider's terms. The model sees whatever the connected user can read.

Can my accountant use it on my behalf?

Workday doesn't address this. Calls run as the Adaptive user who signed in, so an outside adviser would need their own Adaptive user with suitable access rules.

Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we'll email you when it's fixed.

Sources

Verified by theFinanceStack, 21 Oct 2026. Vendor list on the CFO Software Market Map courtesy of Jason Staats; AI connectivity data by theFinanceStack. Not tax, compliance or financial advice.