The marketing automation landscape just shifted. Adobe’s official Marketo MCP (Model Context Protocol) is now in beta, and for the first time, your AI assistant can interact with Marketo in natural language — no custom code, no raw JSON wrangling.
But if you’ve been running on the Marketo REST API, the obvious question is: does MCP replace it? Complement it? Or create new confusion?
We’ve broken it all down for you — including the full picture of what’s live today, what’s coming soon, and what’s been intentionally disabled for safety reasons.
The Core Difference
The MCP is a fundamentally different layer: an AI-optimised interface built on top of the same Marketo instance. It offers 130 named, self-describing tools that an AI can reason about in plain English. Instead of constructing API calls, you describe what you want.
| Think of it this way: the REST API hands you the keys to every room in the building. The MCP gives your AI assistant a guided tour of the rooms most marketing teams actually use — with more rooms being unlocked every week. |
The practical implication is that the MCP covers most of what a marketing operations user needs day-to-day, while the REST API remains the authoritative interface for data engineering, CRM integration, and full platform control.
Full Capability Comparison
The table below maps both interfaces across all key capability areas. It includes what’s live in the MCP today, what’s confirmed coming soon (not yet enabled), and what’s REST-only.
Capability Area | Functionality | REST API | MCP Live | MCP Upcoming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Programs | Browse, Create, Clone, Approve, Tags | ✅ | ✅ | |
Programs | Get creation options (channels, tag types) | ❌ | ✅ | |
Smart Campaigns | Browse, Create, Schedule, Flow Steps | ✅ | ✅ | |
Smart Campaigns | Flow step metadata discovery & auto-suggest | ❌ | ✅ | |
Smart Campaigns | Deactivate smart campaign | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Smart Lists | Browse, Create, Rules Management | ✅ | ✅ | |
Smart Lists | Full rule catalog + auto-suggest | ❌ | ✅ | |
Smart Lists | Add rules with AI / update rules with AI | ❌ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Smart Lists | Get lead count | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Smart Lists | Delete smart list / delete rule | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Static Lists | Browse, Create, Members Management | ✅ | ✅ | |
Static Lists | Delete list | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Forms | Full CRUD, Fields, Visibility Rules | ✅ | ✅ | |
Forms | Update submit button / thank you page | ✅ | ❌ | |
Emails | Browse, Create, Get/Update Content | ✅ | ✅ | |
Emails | Delete, Clone, Unapprove, Discard Draft | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Emails | Modules, Dynamic Content, Variables, Sample Send | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Email Templates | Browse, Get by ID, Get Content | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Email Templates | Create, Update, Approve, Clone, Delete | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Landing Pages | Browse, Get by ID/Name, Get Content | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Landing Pages | Create, Update, Approve, Clone, Delete | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Landing Pages | Update dynamic content, Add/Update/Delete sections | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Landing Page Templates | Browse, Get, Create, Update, Approve, Clone, Delete | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Journeys | Browse, Get by ID/Count, Node membership count | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Journeys | Get publish graph export, Abort, Close, Delete | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Files / Design Studio | Browse, Get by ID/Name, Create, Update | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Snippets | Browse, Get, CRUD, Approve, Dynamic Content | ✅ | ✅ | |
Leads | Get by email/ID, Describe fields, Activities | ✅ | ✅ | |
Leads | Sync (create/update), Merge | ✅ | ❌ | 🔜 |
Leads | Delete, Partitions, Program Status, Changes | ✅ | ❌ | |
Bulk Export | Export leads (create/enqueue/status) | ✅ | ✅ | |
Bulk Export | Export program members, activities, custom objects | ✅ | ❌ | |
Custom Objects | Get, Sync, Delete, Schema Management | ✅ | ❌ | |
Companies | Get, Sync, Delete, Field Schema | ✅ | ❌ | |
User Management | Browse, Invite, Update, Delete users & roles | ✅ | ❌ | |
Faceted Analysis | Aggregate & visualise data (pie charts, tables) | ❌ | ✅ |
✅ = Available | ❌ = Not available | 🔜 = In MCP but not yet enabled (beta). REST API entries reflect current Adobe Experience League documentation.
What's Coming: Tools Not Yet Enabled
The table below lists the specific tools confirmed as upcoming:
| Area | Tools Not Yet Enabled |
|---|---|
| Internal-API Wrappers | add_smart_list_rules_with_ai, update_smart_list_rules_with_ai, get_smart_list_lead_count |
| Journeys | browse_journeys, get_journey_by_id, get_journey_count, get_journey_node_membership_count, get_publish_graph_export, abort_journey, close_journey, delete_journey |
| Emails | delete_email, unapprove_email, clone_email, discard_email_draft, update_email, update_email_dynamic_content, send_sample_email |
| Email Templates | browse_email_templates, get_email_template_by_id, get_email_template_by_name, get_email_template_content, create_email_template, update_email_template, update_email_template_content, delete_email_template, approve_email_template, unapprove_email_template, clone_email_template, discard_email_template_draft |
| Landing Pages | browse_landing_pages, get_landing_page_by_id, get_landing_page_by_name, get_landing_page_content, create_landing_page, update_landing_page, update_landing_page_content, update_landing_page_dynamic_content, delete_landing_page, approve_landing_page, unapprove_landing_page, clone_landing_page, discard_landing_page_draft, add_landing_page_section, update_landing_page_section, delete_landing_page_section |
| Landing Page Templates | browse_landing_page_templates, get_landing_page_template_by_id, get_landing_page_template_by_name, get_landing_page_template_content, create_landing_page_template, update_landing_page_template, update_landing_page_template_content, delete_landing_page_template, approve_landing_page_template, unapprove_landing_page_template, clone_landing_page_template, discard_landing_page_template_draft |
| Files / Design Studio | browse_files, get_file_by_id, get_file_by_name, create_file (multipart upload), update_file (overwrite content) |
| Key insight: Emails, Email Templates, Landing Pages, Landing Page Templates, Journeys, and Files/Design Studio are not ‘REST-only gaps’ — they are MCP capabilities in the pipeline. The coverage gap is much smaller than it appears today. |
Intentionally Disabled: Destructive Operations
A separate category deserves special attention: operations that have been purposefully disabled in the MCP because they are destructive and difficult or impossible to roll back.
These tools exist in the MCP codebase but are deliberately blocked. Adobe’s reasoning is sound — an AI making irreversible mistakes at scale (deleting programs, merging leads incorrectly) would be catastrophic for most Marketo instances.
Area | Disabled Operations (Destructive) |
|---|---|
Lists | delete_list |
Smart Lists | delete_smart_list, delete_smart_list_rule |
Smart Campaigns | deactivate_smart_campaign |
Programs | delete_program |
Leads | merge_leads, create_or_update_leads |
This is a thoughtful design decision. For these operations, the REST API remains the appropriate interface — where a developer or automated process with proper safeguards, audit logging, and rollback planning is in control, not a conversational AI acting on natural language instructions.
Where MCP Pulls Ahead: AI-Native Capabilities
Beyond the feature parity story, a few MCP tools have no REST API equivalent at all. These are purpose-built for AI-assisted workflows:
Faceted Analysis
Tools like facet_smart_campaigns and facet_snippets aggregate and visualise your Marketo data as pie charts and tables inline. The REST API returns raw records — all the analysis is on you.
Rule & Flow Step Discovery
Tools like get_smart_list_rules and get_smart_campaign_flow_step_types expose a full metadata catalog of every filter, trigger, and flow step available in your instance. Without this, an AI has no way to build campaigns correctly from scratch.
AI-Powered Smart List Rules (Coming Soon)
add_smart_list_rules_with_ai and update_smart_list_rules_with_ai are internal-API wrappers not yet enabled — but when they are, they’ll allow an AI to construct and modify smart list rules using natural language rather than explicit filter/trigger IDs. This is a genuinely new capability with no REST equivalent.
Auto-Suggest & Program Creation Options
get_smart_campaign_auto_suggest, get_smart_list_auto_suggest, and get_program_creation_options are MCP-specific abstractions that help an AI plan and configure Marketo assets correctly before executing — no REST equivalent exists.
The MAC Perspective: Use Both, Bridge the Gap
- Use MCP for day-to-day marketing operations workflows — campaign queries, smart list analysis, program management, snippet management, and soon email and landing page operations.
- Use REST API for data engineering, CRM integration (especially Salesforce sync), bulk operations, and anything requiring full programmatic control with audit logging.
- Treat disabled destructive operations as a feature, not a limitation. Keep delete, deactivate, and merge operations behind REST API calls with proper change management processes.
- Bridge remaining gaps with custom MCP tools. Most AI agent platforms that support MCP allow you to register additional tools alongside the official set — wrapping REST endpoints in custom tools for capabilities not yet in the MCP.
| Example: Need to answer ‘how many people attended this webinar?’ — build a custom get_program_members_by_status tool wrapping the REST call. Register it with your AI agent. It answers that question as naturally as any other. |
What This Means for Your Stack
Where the MCP opens new doors is AI-assisted MOps: enabling marketing operations users (not just developers) to query and manage Marketo through conversational AI. And with Journeys, Emails, Landing Pages, and Email Templates all in the pipeline, that scope is expanding rapidly.
Practical next steps for most teams:
- Audit your existing MOps workflows against the full capability table above — including the ‘upcoming’ column
- Identify which workflows are good MCP candidates now vs. which to revisit once the upcoming tools go live
- Implement REST API controls and approval workflows for destructive operations before exposing any AI-assisted Marketo tooling to your team
- Evaluate AI agent platforms that support MCP — Claude, Copilot Studio, and others — for your specific workflow needs
