Update quickstart to create the SASL user

[JakeSCahill]

Description

The redpanda_output template currently still requires users to create a SASL user rather than using the service account. This PR updates the quickstart with instructions for creating that user and the secrets.

Page previews

Checks

• New feature
• Content gap
• Support Follow-up
• Small fix (typos, links, copyedits, etc)

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[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Documentation update to the MCP remote quickstart guide. Changes include user creation and ACL setup via Data Plane API, restructuring topic creation payload from nested to flat fields, replacing service account authentication with secret-based credentials, updating MCP server creation payload with tool definitions and SASL/SCRAM-256 configuration, and adding testing and validation guidance for Claude Code integration.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~10–15 minutes

• Single documentation file with technical API payload examples and configuration steps
• Review should focus on API payload structure accuracy (user, ACL, topic, MCP server), correct field names and types, and SASL/SCRAM configuration syntax
• Verify the sequence of steps is correct, executable, and actionable for end users
• Validate secrets handling and credential sourcing instructions are clear and complete

Possibly related PRs

• Doc 1846: Remote MCP GA #472: Modifies the same MCP quickstart content with overlapping changes to MCP server creation, authentication, tool definitions, and Data Plane API examples.
• Add docs for remote MCP servers #413: Prior changes to the same remote MCP quickstart documentation; this PR builds on that content with user/ACL creation, secret-based SCRAM auth, and updated tool/server payloads.

Suggested reviewers

• birdayz
• rockwotj
• paulohtb6

Pre-merge checks and finishing touches

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely summarizes the main change: updating the quickstart to create a SASL user, which aligns with the documented modifications to add user creation and ACL setup.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description adequately explains the purpose (adding SASL user creation instructions) and context (redpanda_output template requirement). While the Netlify preview section and category checkboxes are empty, the core description content is complete.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

✨ Finishing touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment
• Commit unit tests in branch quickstart-sasl-user

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Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 3959f60 and c9df47b.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• modules/ai-agents/pages/mcp/remote/quickstart.adoc (5 hunks)

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• GitHub Check: Header rules - rp-cloud
• GitHub Check: Pages changed - rp-cloud

🔇 Additional comments (5)

modules/ai-agents/pages/mcp/remote/quickstart.adoc (5)

62-76: Approve: rpk user and ACL creation steps are clear and comprehensive.

The rpk commands provide a straightforward path for users to create SASL credentials and grant necessary permissions. Instructions to save the password are helpful for downstream configuration.

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220-223: Approve: Secret creation flow is well-structured and documented.

The transition from UI-based credential entry (lines 220-223) to API-based secret creation (lines 239-269) is clear. The base64 encoding guidance with the echo -n technique is correct and helpful. Secret IDs and references are consistent.

Verify that SCOPE_MCP_SERVER is the correct enum value for the secrets API in your Data Plane API version.

Also applies to: 239-269

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279-299: Approve: MCP server creation payload structure is comprehensive and well-organized.

The payload correctly transitions from the previous service-account approach to SASL-based credentials. The tools section properly defines both the generate_input and redpanda_output tools with appropriate component types and configurations. SASL/SCRAM-256 is correctly enabled with secret references, and TLS is appropriately enabled.

Verify that:

1. The secret reference pattern ${secrets.MCP_USERNAME} and ${secrets.MCP_PASSWORD} is supported by your MCP server runtime.
2. The environment variable ${REDPANDA_BROKERS} is injected into the MCP server container by your platform.
3. The Redpanda Connect YAML syntax for the redpanda output component matches your current version (review the config_yaml structure for any breaking changes).

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146-178: No issues found. All Data Plane API enum values (SASL_MECHANISM_SCRAM_SHA_256, RESOURCE_TYPE_TOPIC, OPERATION_ALL, PERMISSION_TYPE_ALLOW, RESOURCE_PATTERN_TYPE_LITERAL) are correct per the current Redpanda Cloud documentation.

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140-144: Verify the complete topic creation payload schema against the full Data Plane API reference documentation.

The Data Plane API uses partition_count in snake_case for partition-related operations, which matches the payload shown. However, the official documentation examples only demonstrate basic topic creation with the name field. The presence and correct naming of the replication_factor field, and the complete list of supported parameters for topic creation, should be confirmed against the full Data Plane API reference specification.

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