Hello everyone, We are proud to announce the immediate availability of the *Oxygen AI Positron 8.4* plugins for all major Oxygen XML suite products, including Oxygen XML Editor, Author, Developer (desktop and Eclipse distributions), Oxygen JSON Editor, Oxygen XML Web Author, and Oxygen Content Fusion. Version *8.4* introduces a major interoperability enhancement by allowing Oxygen AI Positron to run as a *local MCP (Model Context Protocol) HTTP server*, making it possible for third-party AI assistants such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Open Code, and Cursor to connect to Oxygen and use the tools contributed by AI Positron. This release also improves how AI-generated edits are merged into documents, adds support for AI clarification questions, expands the available AI model selection, and provides new productivity tools for advanced documentation workflows. *New in Oxygen AI Positron 8.4* **************************************** * *Local MCP Server Support* The AI Positron add-on can now operate as a local *MCP HTTP server*, enabling external AI assistants to connect to Oxygen and use AI Positron tools. A new *Oxygen MCP Server* preferences page is available in *Preferences / Plugins / Oxygen AI Positron*, where you can configure the MCP server port, start or stop the local server, and copy the MCP configuration JSON for use in third-party AI assistants. When external AI assistants make file changes through the Oxygen MCP Server tools, a new status button appears in the Chat view, allowing you to *accept, modify, or reject* those changes. The MCP server can also provide external AI assistants with contextual information from the open Oxygen application, including open documents, DITA Maps Manager information, selected content, project context prompts, and available skills. * *Enhanced AI-assisted Editing* AI-generated changes are now merged directly into documents instead of overwriting and reloading files. If *Track Changes* is enabled, AI edits are recorded as tracked changes, making them easier to review, accept, or reject. AI Positron can also ask clarifying questions when a prompt needs more detail, helping the AI better understand the intended result before making changes. The built-in *Rewrite* and *Translate to...* actions now use targeted edits instead of regenerating the entire document, improving performance, reducing token usage, and better preserving markup and formatting, especially in large files. * *Expanded AI Model Support* *Oxygen AI Positron 8.4* adds support for new models across multiple AI providers, offering more flexibility for balancing quality, reasoning, speed, and cost. New and updated model options include:  - *OpenAI*: GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, Luna, and their Thinking variants. GPT-5.6 Terra with adaptive thinking is now the default for AI Positron Service subscriptions.  - *Anthropic*: Claude Sonnet 5 and Claude Opus 5 are available with AI Positron Service subscriptions.  - *Google*: Gemini 3.8 Flash, Gemini 3.7 Flash, Gemini 3.6 Flash, and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite are available with AI Positron Service subscriptions.  - *xAI*: Grok 4.6, 4.5, and 4.3 are available for Enterprise users.  - *Voice transcription*: The speech-to-text model used for voice prompts has been updated from GPT-4o Transcribe to GPT Transcribe for AI Positron Service and OpenAI external connections. For Microsoft Azure and AWS Bedrock connectors, users can now manually set the *Maximum context window size*. This helps AI Positron accurately display context usage and ensures that automatic context compaction works correctly when model deployments or IDs are custom-defined. * *Improved Chat Experience and Productivity* AI Positron now renders Markdown responses in a rich, browser-like preview and provides more detailed context usage information for both external AI connections and Oxygen AI Positron Service connections. You can also attach folders to chat messages, and AI-generated command-line commands can now use environment variables to help protect secret tokens. Additional improvements include support for organizing AI actions into sub-categories, displaying human-readable names for MCP tools, better handling of pending AI Positron changes in sandbox files, automatic resizing of large images before sending them to the AI model, and wildcard support in the Unsafe tool auto-approval preferences page. * *New Validation and Transformation Tools* Version *8.4* adds new tools for validation and publishing workflows. The validate_and_check_for_completeness tool helps you catch document errors and broken references during chat sessions, while validate_with_schematron supports validation against existing Schematron files or newly generated rules based on user requirements. New transformation scenario tools also allow the AI to discover available scenarios, run selected transformations, and inspect output logs or validation errors, helping automate publishing, testing, and verification tasks directly from Oxygen. The new validation and transformation tools require the upcoming *Oxygen XML 29* or newer. You can benefit of early access to these features by contacting the Oxygen XML support at support@oxygenxml.com. For the complete list of features added in *Oxygen AI Positron 8.4*, please see: https://www.oxygenxml.com/ai_positron/whats_new.html *Webinar* **************************************** For a hands-on exploration of the newest features in Oxygen AI Positron, designed to make AI an active partner in your documentation lifecycle, join the free webinar taking place on *October 21* - *Beyond the Chatbot: Harnessing Agentic AI, MCP, and Validation Tools with Oxygen AI Positron*. The event is free, but registration is required - https://oxygenxml.com/evs2026-7.html As always, thank you for your support and don't forget that feedback is welcome! Best regards, Alin -- Alin Belu Oxygen XML Editor