Database MCP

A single-binary MCP server for SQL databases. Connect your AI assistant to MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, or SQLite with zero runtime dependencies.

Website · Documentation · Releases

Features ✨

• Multi-database — MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and SQLite from one binary
• MCP tools — schema discovery (listDatabases, listTables, listViews, listTriggers, listFunctions, listProcedures, listMaterializedViews), data access (readQuery, writeQuery), DDL (createDatabase, dropDatabase, dropTable), and explainQuery. Read-only mode hides the write tools (writeQuery, createDatabase, dropDatabase, dropTable). See MCP Tools for per-backend availability.
• Single binary — ~7 MB, no Python/Node/Docker needed
• Multiple transports — stdio (for Claude Desktop, Cursor) and HTTP (for remote/multi-client)
• Two-layer config — CLI flags > environment variables, with sensible defaults per backend

Install 📦

macOS, Linux, WSL:

curl -fsSL https://dbmcp.haymon.ai/install.sh | bash

Windows PowerShell:

irm https://dbmcp.haymon.ai/install.ps1 | iex

Windows CMD:

curl -fsSL https://dbmcp.haymon.ai/install.cmd -o install.cmd && install.cmd && del install.cmd

See the installation docs for Docker, Cargo, and other methods.

Quick Start 🚀

Using .mcp.json (recommended)

Add a .mcp.json file to your project root. MCP clients read this file and configure the server automatically.

Stdio transport — the client starts and manages the server process:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dbmcp": {
      "command": "dbmcp",
      "args": ["stdio"],
      "env": {
        "DB_BACKEND": "mysql",
        "DB_HOST": "127.0.0.1",
        "DB_PORT": "3306",
        "DB_USER": "root",
        "DB_PASSWORD": "secret",
        "DB_NAME": "mydb"
      }
    }
  }
}

HTTP transport — you start the server yourself, the client connects to it:

# Start the server first
dbmcp http --db-backend mysql --db-user root --db-name mydb --port 9001

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dbmcp": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:9001/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Note: The "type": "http" field is required for HTTP transport. Without it, clients like Claude Code will reject the config.

Using CLI flags

# MySQL/MariaDB
dbmcp stdio --db-backend mysql --db-host localhost --db-user root --db-name mydb

# PostgreSQL
dbmcp stdio --db-backend postgres --db-host localhost --db-user postgres --db-name mydb

# SQLite
dbmcp stdio --db-backend sqlite --db-name ./data.db

# HTTP transport
dbmcp http --db-backend mysql --db-user root --db-name mydb --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9001

Using environment variables

DB_BACKEND=mysql DB_USER=root DB_NAME=mydb dbmcp stdio

Configuration ⚙️

Configuration is loaded with clear precedence:

CLI flags > environment variables > defaults

Environment variables are typically set by your MCP client (via env or envFile in the server config).

Subcommands

A subcommand is required — running dbmcp with no subcommand prints usage help and exits with a non-zero status.

Database Options (shared across subcommands)

SSL/TLS Options

Server Options

Logging Options

HTTP-only Options (only available with http subcommand)

MCP Tools 🧩

listDatabases

Lists accessible databases, paginated via cursor / nextCursor. See Cursor Pagination for iteration details. Not available for SQLite.

listTables

Lists tables in a database, paginated via cursor / nextCursor. See Cursor Pagination for iteration details.

Parameters: database (defaults to the active database; SQLite has no database parameter), cursor, search, detailed.

search is an optional case-insensitive LIKE/ILIKE pattern with % (any sequence) and _ (single character) as wildcards — pass users% to match names beginning with users, or %order% for substring matching. A bare word with no wildcards matches only an exact table name.

detailed (default false) switches the response shape:

• Brief (default) — tables is a sorted JSON array of bare table-name strings.
• Detailed (detailed: true) — tables is a JSON object keyed by table name; each value carries the table's schema, kind, owner, comment, columns[], constraints[], indexes[], and triggers[]. One call returns both the table list and the per-table metadata.

listViews

Lists views in a database, paginated via cursor / nextCursor. Available on MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL (public schema), and SQLite. Parameters: database (defaults to the active database; SQLite has no database parameter), cursor, search, detailed. SQLite returns the brief shape only — search and detailed are not accepted there.

search is an optional case-insensitive LIKE/ILIKE pattern with % (any sequence) and _ (single character) as wildcards. The search value must remain identical across paginated calls for cursor continuity.

detailed (default false) switches the response shape:

• Brief (default) — views is a sorted JSON array of bare view-name strings. View names are unique per schema, so no duplicates appear.
• Detailed (detailed: true) — views is a JSON object keyed by bare view name; each value carries the per-backend metadata payload. PostgreSQL exposes schema, owner, description, definition. MySQL/MariaDB exposes schema, definer, security, checkOption, updatable, characterSetClient, collationConnection, definition. See the listViews reference for source columns, enumerated value sets, and intentional omissions per backend.

See Cursor Pagination for iteration details.

listTriggers

Lists user-defined triggers on tables, paginated via cursor / nextCursor. Internal constraint and foreign-key triggers are excluded. Available on MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL (public schema), and SQLite. Parameters: database (defaults to the active database; SQLite has no database parameter), cursor, search, detailed.

search is an optional case-insensitive LIKE/ILIKE pattern with % (any sequence) and _ (single character) as wildcards. The search value must remain identical across paginated calls for cursor continuity.

detailed (default false) switches the response shape: