alibabacloud-sdk-usage

Alibaba Cloud SDK Usage

Use the local alibabacloud-core MCP server tools before writing Alibaba Cloud interaction code. Do not start another MCP server or call aliyun directly from the shell.

Use the MCP Core tools (AlibabaCloud___SearchApis, AlibabaCloud___ListApis, AlibabaCloud___GetApiDefinition, AlibabaCloud___GenerateCLICommand, AlibabaCloud___CallCLI) to resolve metadata. Do not guess product codes, SDK packages, request models, endpoints, or parameter casing.

Scope Check Before You Start

This skill generates SDK code that calls a small number of APIs. If the user's request is instead an operational pattern that likely has a packaged solution — batch operations, audits, rotations, scheduled cleanup, multi-step runbooks — invoke alibabacloud-find-skills first to search the official catalog. Falling back to SDK synthesis is appropriate only after find-skills returns no match. Full trigger conditions are in mcp-core-best-practices → Skill Discovery.

Workflow

1. Inspect the local project first.

   • Detect the target language from project files (pyproject.toml, requirements*.txt, package.json, go.mod, pom.xml, build.gradle, .csproj, composer.json, Package.swift, etc.).
   • Check whether Alibaba Cloud SDK dependencies are already installed or declared.
   • Check existing Alibaba Cloud call style. If the project uses generic call_api / common OpenAPI calls, continue with callType=generic. If it uses product-specific clients and request models, continue with callType=typed.
   • Match local naming, formatting, async style, error handling, and dependency manager. Do not paste standalone samples into application code unchanged.

2. Resolve metadata with OpenAPI Explorer through local MCP.

   • list-products: resolve the exact product code and default API version when the user did not provide them.
   • get-product-endpoints: choose the endpoint for the target region. Use VPC endpoints only when the code will run inside the same Alibaba Cloud VPC; otherwise use the public endpoint.
   • get-api-definition: read required parameters, pagination fields, response shape, error codes, and RAM actions.
   • get-sdk-dependencies: get the exact dependency and version for the selected language and callType.
   • get-code-sample: get the official sample for the same product, API version, language, region, params, and callType.

3. Install or update dependencies only when needed.

   • If the required dependency is already present and compatible, do not add a duplicate.
   • If the project already uses a dependency manager, update that manager's manifest instead of issuing an unrelated install command.
   • Use the install command or dependency coordinates returned by get-sdk-dependencies / get-code-sample.

4. Adapt the sample into local code.

   • Keep credentials on the default Alibaba Cloud credential provider chain. Do not hardcode access keys.
   • Set the endpoint and region consistently.
   • Populate request parameters from the user's inputs and get-api-definition.
   • Add pagination only when the API definition exposes pagination parameters. Prefer token pagination (NextToken + MaxResults / MaxItems) over page-number pagination when both are available.
   • Preserve local code style and existing typed/generic SDK approach.

5. Verify.

   • Run the project's normal format, lint, type-check, compile, or test command when available.
   • For a live smoke test, prefer a cheap read-only Describe* / List* call with narrow parameters.

MCP Tool Usage

Use the MCP Core tools directly:

• AlibabaCloud___ListProducts — resolve product code and default API version.
• AlibabaCloud___SearchApis — find APIs by natural language description.
• AlibabaCloud___GetApiDefinition — get full parameter spec, response schema, and error codes for a specific API.
• AlibabaCloud___GenerateCLICommand — produce a validated CLI command from API definition and parameters.
• AlibabaCloud___CallCLI — execute CLI commands for metadata queries (e.g., aliyun openapiexplorer get-code-sample ...).

For SDK dependency and code sample retrieval, use CallCLI with:

aliyun openapiexplorer get-sdk-dependencies --product Ecs --biz-language python --biz-version 2014-05-26 --call-type typed
aliyun openapiexplorer get-code-sample --product Ecs --api-name DescribeInstances --biz-language python --biz-api-version 2014-05-26 --biz-region-id cn-hangzhou --call-type typed --params '{"RegionId":"cn-hangzhou"}'

If an MCP tool is unavailable or denies a command, stop and report the denial. Do not fall back to shell execution or another MCP server.

Guardrails

• Do not switch a local project from generic calls to typed SDK calls, or the reverse, unless the user asks for that migration.
• Do not run aliyun directly from the terminal for this workflow.
• Do not use any MCP server except the local alibabacloud-core server.
• Do not invent SDK versions, package names, request classes, or field casing.
• Do not add verbose tutorial text to generated code.
• Do not use OSS or Tablestore data-plane SDKs through this workflow; use those product SDKs directly.