AWS Shows How to Build Interactive MCP Apps on Bedrock AgentCore
AWS published a technical guide detailing how Amazon Bedrock AgentCore's runtime and gateway support MCP Apps, interactive widgets for AI hosts like ChatGPT and Claude.
Quick answer
How can developers build interactive MCP Apps using Amazon Bedrock AgentCore?
AWS says its Amazon Bedrock AgentCore platform supports MCP Apps, a Model Context Protocol extension that renders interactive HTML widgets inside AI hosts like ChatGPT and Claude. AWS demonstrated the capability with a sample app called Unicorn Rentals, showing browsing, booking, viewing, and returning rentals through AgentCore's runtime and gateway.
Key takeaways
- AWS says Amazon Bedrock AgentCore now supports MCP Apps, letting developers add interactive HTML widgets to agent responses inside AI hosts like ChatGPT and Claude instead of plain text.
- AWS attributes the support to two AgentCore capabilities: AgentCore Runtime, a secure serverless session-isolated host with native MCP support, and AgentCore Gateway, which exposes it through a single secure endpoint.
- AWS demonstrated the setup with a sample app, Unicorn Rentals, that lets users browse, book, view, and return unicorn rentals through natural-language requests.
- AWS says the same Unicorn Rentals server runs unchanged in ChatGPT, Claude, or any other host that supports the MCP Apps extension.
- In the demo, the booking-view step returned as plain text rather than a card, which AWS says reflects that not every request needs a rich interface.
AWS Publishes Guide for Building Interactive MCP Apps on Bedrock AgentCore
Amazon Web Services published a technical blog post on Sept. 11, 2026, explaining how developers can build and deploy MCP Apps — interactive applications that render inside AI chat hosts — using Amazon Bedrock AgentCore. The post, written by AWS's Dantis Stephen and Babs Khalidson, walks through a sample rental application to show the capability in action.
What MCP Apps Adds
According to AWS, MCP Apps extends the Model Context Protocol (MCP) by adding interactive HTML widgets that render directly inside AI hosts such as ChatGPT and Claude, rather than limiting responses to plain text. AWS says organizations can use the standard to make their services accessible across multiple AI hosts without tying their integration to a single host.
AgentCore's Role
AWS describes Amazon Bedrock AgentCore as a platform for building, connecting, and optimizing agents at scale, compatible with any framework or model. For MCP Apps specifically, AWS points to two AgentCore capabilities:
- AgentCore Runtime, which the company describes as a secure, serverless, session-isolated host with native MCP support.
- AgentCore Gateway, which exposes that runtime through a single secure endpoint that MCP Apps-compatible hosts can reach.
AWS says AgentCore handles this infrastructure work so developers can focus on business logic and widget design instead.
A Sample App: Unicorn Rentals
To illustrate the setup, AWS built a sample application called Unicorn Rentals and deployed it as an MCP App connected to an AI host. AWS says the app lets customers browse available unicorns, book rentals, view active bookings, and return unicorns, and that it looks and behaves the same regardless of which supported AI host it runs in. The post demonstrates the app running in ChatGPT, and AWS says the same server works in Claude or other hosts that support the MCP Apps extension.
AWS walked through four interactions:
AWS notes that the booking-view step returns as plain text instead of a card, saying that not every request needs a rich interface.
Source: AWS Machine Learning Blog, "Build interactive MCP Apps using Amazon Bedrock AgentCore," published Sept. 11, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
- What is MCP Apps?
- According to AWS, MCP Apps is an extension of the Model Context Protocol that adds interactive HTML widgets rendered inside AI hosts such as ChatGPT and Claude, instead of plain-text responses.
- What role does Amazon Bedrock AgentCore play?
- AWS says AgentCore provides AgentCore Runtime, a secure serverless session-isolated host with native MCP support, and AgentCore Gateway, which exposes that host through a single secure endpoint for MCP Apps-compatible hosts.
- What is Unicorn Rentals?
- Unicorn Rentals is a sample application AWS built to demonstrate MCP Apps on Bedrock AgentCore, letting users browse available unicorns, book rentals, view active bookings, and return unicorns via natural-language requests.
- Does the app work the same across different AI hosts?
- AWS says yes: because MCP Apps is a host-agnostic standard, the Unicorn Rentals server delivers the same experience whether accessed through ChatGPT, Claude, or another host that supports the MCP Apps extension.
Sources
- Build interactive MCP Apps using Amazon Bedrock AgentCore | Artificial Intelligence — Amazon Web Services (AWS)