Orchard Core MCP Server, Orchard Harvest 2026 Recordings - This week in Orchard (23/10/2026)
Want your AI assistant to give better answers that match how Orchard Core actually works? The new AI Quick Start guide in the docs shows how to connect Claude, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and other clients to the official Orchard Core MCP server.
Building a custom admin theme and want content field hints to look different? A new Hint_Admin shape lets your theme override how hints are rendered.
We also started publishing the Orchard Harvest 2026 recordings on YouTube.
This week's changes come from Mike Alhayek, Kryštof Klaban, and Aniket Deshmane.
Orchard Core updates
Allow admin themes to customize field hints
Kryštof Klaban added a new Hint_Admin shape to TheAdmin theme. Content field hints you configure in the field settings now render through this shape, so a custom admin theme can override how they look. By default, nothing changes: the Hint.Admin.cshtml template outputs the same markup as before.
<span class="hint dashed">@Model.Hint</span>
To customize every content field hint, add a Views/Hint.Admin.cshtml template to your custom admin theme. For example, your template can render the hint as an accessible button with a Bootstrap tooltip, as you can see in this screenshot:
Add View action to Media Library
The Media Library now includes a View action that opens the file in a new browser tab. This comes in handy when you want to view an image or PDF at full size. To try it, go to Media -> Library and click the three dots next to any uploaded file. The View option is there in both List View and Grid View.
Thanks to Aniket Deshmane for his first contribution!
Demos
Orchard Core MCP Server
Mike Alhayek added an AI Quick Start page to the Getting Started section of the Orchard Core documentation. It shows how to pair Orchard Core with an AI assistant so that its answers and generated code follow how the framework actually works.
The key piece is the official Orchard Core MCP server, hosted at https://ai.orchardcore.net. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets AI assistants call external tools. Through this server, your assistant can search and read the Orchard Core documentation, so it uses the right APIs, module names, and conventions instead of guessing.
The guide has step-by-step setup instructions for the most common clients:
- GitHub Copilot CLI, GitHub Copilot on github.com, and Visual Studio Code with GitHub Copilot.
- Claude Code and Claude Desktop.
- Cursor, and any other client that supports remote HTTP MCP servers.
In Claude Code, for example, it takes a single command:
claude mcp add --transport http orchardcore https://ai.orchardcore.net/mcp
Once connected, you can ask the assistant to scaffold a module, write a recipe, generate a data migration that adds parts to a content type, or explain how display drivers and shapes work. We asked "How do display drivers and shapes work, and how do I customize the rendering of a part?", and Claude answered with an explanation and code examples:
The guide also points to the community-maintained CrestApps.AgentSkills project. It provides reusable Orchard Core skills as plugins for Claude Code and the GitHub Copilot CLI, and works well together with the MCP server.
To connect your assistant of choice, head to the AI Quick Start page in the docs.
And as always, head to YouTube for a recording!
News from the community
Orchard Harvest 2026 Recordings
The 9th Orchard Harvest Conference, our second online one, took place on 10-11 September 2026. We recorded every session and started publishing them on the Orchard Core YouTube channel, in the Orchard Harvest 2026 - Online playlist. Subscribe to the channel so you don't miss the upcoming videos!
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