This is great progress, thank you @dan. You mentioned that you have also been working to give Elements AI additional information on how things work. Any chance this can be repurposed into the online documentation?
WHY?
I have been working on that huge project I mentioned back a bit of time ago. I have been using AI for formatting my YAML and Markdown, including the internal links. My AI is working from a pretty big database to build all the links. So rather than telling AI what to do with endless examples, it would be nice to simply direct my AI to the documentation. The advantage of this is my AI has figured out a number of very cool ways to use Elements and, more importantly, work within the parameters of Elements and Elements CMS to come up with solutions that I had not thought of.
Or allow the user to connect “my AI” to Elements to get the best of both worlds. I know, give a centimeter, ask for a kilometer.
I think probably yes! I saw this when it was first announced, but I didn’t place any weight on it because I had not built out my own workflow yet. This might actually be a large part of my workflow already created by the Realmac Team. The only caveat I see potentially getting in the way would be if the methodology Realmac has placed inside Elements AI would clash with the work I have started. If I remember correctly, this (MCP) has not shipped yet, or has it, and what is the cost?
One other thing. This will show my very limited knowledge of MCP connectors. Will my Claude account be able to know, through the MCP connection, what tools and capabilities are available to it for configuring, adding, or deleting components and posts in Elements?
It won’t clash, you can simply choose to use whatever works best for you.
Re cost: The current plan (not set in stone) is to include the MCP server for free as part of the Pro version of Elements. So the only cost is the cots of your Claude subscription.
The Elements AI MCP server is not yet available publicly. We hope to ship a beta in the coming months.
Yes, that’s exactly the idea behind it. You’ll be able to do everything I’ve shown in the video’s so far with the MCP server
You can use any of the models with the Elements MCP server, but your results will vary depending on the model. Sonnet is better for planning and more straightforward tasks. Opus is excellent for more complex tasks.
I also read that Fable 5 should be available again later today
As much as the development of this app frustrates me sometimes, I have to admit I remain excited for what this could ultimately become. Depending on how deep you build the MCP access, this could literally change website creation. I know there are others out there. Hostinger Website Builder comes to mind. But this is at a whole other level for the designer and content builder if they take a few moments (weeks or months, maybe) and learn about Elements, Custom Components, AI, and MCP servers, and basic UI psychology.
Yes, a local LLM that can connect to an MCP server will work. However, it’s worth remembering your results won’t be as good (or fast) as frontier models like Claude Sonnet and Opus, or our dedicated built-in AI Assistant.
