R as an AI Tool Server: Exposing R Workflows through MCP

Can R tame the MCP chaos? Let's find out. 🤖

Two talks. Two live demos. One evening that might change how you think about MCP in R.

Refreshments and networking from 18h00.

Agenda
~~~~~~~~~~~~
* 16h30 – 16h45 | Welcome and News - Handre Williams & Luis de Sousa
* 16h45 – 17h20 | Handre Williams: R as a control layer for MCP workflows

MCP gives LLMs the ability to act.

R gives you the ability to control, validate, and orchestrate those actions.

This talk explores how R can sit in the loop as a control layer — managing tool calls, enforcing structure, and adding statistical sanity checks to MCP-driven workflows.

Includes a live demo.
* 17h20 – 17h55 | Luis de Sousa: Turning R into an MCP server: exposing R as a tool for AI

What if your R code wasn’t just something you run... but something AI could call?

This talk explores how to expose R as an MCP server, turning your scripts, models, and data pipelines into tools that LLMs can query and execute.

You’ll see:
- How to expose R functions safely as MCP tools
- How AI can call R to compute, query, and analyse
- Where this breaks - and where it’s genuinely useful

Includes a live demo.

* 17h55 – 18h00 | Wrap up, questions & close
* 18h00 | Refreshments & networking — continue the conversation in person

Details
~~~~~~~~~~~~
When: 12 May 2026 @ 16h30 to 18h00 (GMT+2)
Where: Microsoft Campus in Bryanston, South Africa
Location: https://goo.gl/maps/4ffcC3N6T7S2
Keen to speak at a future event? Submit your session abstracts at https://sessionize.com/johannesburg-r-user-group/

Stay connected
~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Website: https://www.rusergroup.co.za
* Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/joburg-r-users-group
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/JHBRUserGroup
* GitHub: https://github.com/rusergroupcoza
* WhatsApp: https://bit.ly/3CeDifS