The Death of the Developer Portal (And What's Replacing It)

Last month, I spoke with the CMO of a major database company. She showed me their analytics dashboard with a mix of confusion and concern. "Our developer portal traffic is down 92% year-over-year," she said, "but our product adoption is up 3x. How is this possible?"

The answer reveals a seismic shift in developer behavior that's upending everything we know about developer marketing and PLG strategies.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Where Did All the Developers Go?

They didn't disappear. They're busier than ever, building more software, evaluating more tools. They just stopped coming to your portal. Instead, they're asking Claude. They're prompting ChatGPT. They're coding with Cursor.

"I haven't visited a documentation site in months. I just ask my AI assistant how to implement something, and it either knows or it doesn't. If it doesn't know about your product, you basically don't exist." - Senior Developer at Fortune 500

This isn't a temporary trend or a generational preference. It's a fundamental shift in how technical knowledge is discovered, evaluated, and applied.

The Old Funnel Is Broken

Traditional Developer Journey (2022)

1. Google search for solution
2. Land on documentation site
3. Read getting started guide
4. Try example code
5. Evaluate fit
6. Implement in project

AI-Native Developer Journey (2024)

1. Describe problem to AI assistant
2. AI suggests and implements solution
3. Developer accepts or refines

Notice what's missing? Your portal. Your carefully crafted onboarding flow. Your interactive tutorials. The entire middle of your funnel has been disintermediated by AI.

Why AI Agents Don't Visit Documentation Sites

AI agents are fundamentally different users than humans. They don't browse. They don't explore. They execute. When a developer asks "How do I implement real-time sync with a distributed database?", the AI needs to:

• Understand available options
• Evaluate tradeoffs
• Generate working code
• Handle edge cases

All in under 3 seconds. Your documentation site, optimized for human reading and gradual learning, simply can't serve this use case.

Enter the Model Context Protocol

This is where MCP changes everything. Instead of documentation for humans, MCP provides executable interfaces for AI agents. Think of it as:

Real-World Results

Companies that have shifted from documentation-centric to MCP-native distribution are seeing remarkable results:

• ScyllaDB: 10x increase in conversion rate when AI agents could run performance benchmarks
• Temporal: 65% reduction in time-to-first-value via AI-assisted implementation
• Prisma: 89% of new users now onboard through AI agents rather than docs

What This Means for Marketing Leaders

1. Shift Investment from Content to Code

Every dollar spent on documentation that AI can't execute is a dollar wasted. Invest in making your product programmatically discoverable and testable.

2. Redefine Success Metrics

Page views, time on site, and documentation engagement are vanity metrics in the AI era. Track AI agent interactions, successful implementations, and automated evaluation outcomes.

3. Partner with Engineering Earlier

MCP implementation isn't a marketing initiative—it's a product feature. Get engineering buy-in early and make AI-native distribution part of your product roadmap.

The Path Forward

The death of the developer portal isn't a crisis—it's an opportunity. Companies that recognize this shift and adapt their distribution strategies will capture the next generation of developers. Those that cling to traditional documentation-centric approaches will find themselves invisible to AI agents and, by extension, to developers.

The question isn't whether this shift will affect your business. It's whether you'll lead the change or be left behind.