An MCP server for ferry operations: what an AI agent can and cannot do
"Is Tuesday's Sark sailing full?" is a question an operator's assistant can answer when it is connected to BORA over the Model Context Protocol. The same operations surface as the API, in the shape an AI agent expects — and scoped so the agent can do only what it has been granted.
All articlesBORA Systems is a ferry operations platform built in Tallinn, Estonia — 33 modules across 6 functional categories, each on its own microservice with a local API. Certified to ISO/IEC 27001 and GDPR-compliant. As of 2026, in daily service across three regions: the Baltic, the Channel Islands and the Persian Gulf.
What is the BORA MCP server?
The BORA MCP server exposes ferry operations as tools an AI agent can call directly over the Model Context Protocol. An agent connected over MCP can ask about capacity, pull a report, or act on live data, with no bespoke integration or middleware in between.
It is the same operations surface as the BORA API, which offers schedules, availability, bookings, inventory and pricing over REST and GraphQL — presented in the shape an agent expects.
What can an agent reach?
Reading schedules and sailings, live passenger and vehicle capacity, and reporting; and, where an agent is meant to act rather than only answer, working with bookings.
The set of tools a given deployment advertises is agreed with the operator rather than fixed. An operator decides what its agents should be able to reach, and the server advertises that much.
How is an agent kept within bounds?
An agent can only do what its access is granted. Scopes are configured per deployment: an assistant meant to answer questions is not given the ability to change a booking, and a tool an agent has not been granted is not one it can see.
One operator's server never exposes another operator's data. The server is not an autonomous operator either: it answers and acts within scope, under the operator's control.
Which AI clients can connect?
Any MCP-compatible client — Claude Desktop, Copilot, or an operator's own agent. The server is available to operators running BORA, and access is arranged as part of the contract rather than self-served; the package, the transport and the configuration come with it and are not published.
For integrations that are not agents, the BORA API is authenticated per operator, rate-limited per operator, and described in a full OpenAPI specification that is available on request.
How does the support agent differ?
The BORA support agent is an assistant grounded in one operator's deployment — its vessels, routes and rules, plus the operator's own documents such as an internal handbook. When a question falls outside its data or scope it does not guess: it hands the conversation to the operator's support team with the question and what it found.
It does not make commercial decisions or commit the operator to anything; it informs and escalates. It is scoped to one operator's configuration, and conversations are processed under GDPR.
See BORA on live data
A 30-minute walkthrough, from a web booking to the ramp closing.
Akadeemia tee 15a, 12618 Tallinn, Estonia