Model Context Protocol Database Explorer

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes tools for exploring and querying SQLite and PostgreSQL databases. It allows Large Language Models (LLMs) to inspect table structures, perform statistical profiling, generate entity-relationship diagrams, and execute queries safely.

Overview

The Database Explorer MCP Server provides a bridge between LLMs and SQL databases. It features read-only constraints by default, AST-based query safety verification, automatic schema visualization, and execution plan inspection tools.

Architecture

The diagram below outlines the flow of a client request to the database via the MCP server:

graph TD
    Client[MCP Client] -->|JSON-RPC| Server[MCP Database Explorer Server]
    Server -->|Parse & Safety Check| Safety[Safety Validator]
    Safety -->|AST Verification| Allowed{Safe?}
    Allowed -->|Yes| Database[(Database: SQLite / PostgreSQL)]
    Allowed -->|No| Block[Block Query & Return Error]
    Database -->|Query Results| Server
    Server -->|Response| Client

Project Structure

mcp-db-explorer/
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── ci.yml             # GitHub Actions CI workflow
├── mcp_db_explorer/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── database.py            # Database connection and querying logic
│   ├── prompts.py             # Prompt templates (e.g. NL-to-SQL)
│   ├── safety.py              # AST-based SQL safety validation
│   └── server.py              # MCP Server definition and CLI entrypoint
├── tests/
│   ├── test_database.py       # Tests for database connections and queries
│   ├── test_safety.py         # Tests for AST query validation
│   └── test_server.py         # Tests for MCP server tool schemas
├── pyproject.toml             # Project dependency configuration
└── README.md                  # Project documentation

Setup and Installation

Prerequisites

Ensure you have Python 3.10 or later installed on your system.

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/arman1o1/mcp-db-explorer
cd mcp-db-explorer

2. Setup and Install Dependencies

Option A: Using uv (Recommended)

This project is configured with uv. To install dependencies and set up the virtual environment, run:

uv sync

Option B: Using pip and venv

You can set up a virtual environment and install dependencies manually:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e .

Running the Application

Running with uv

To run the MCP server, use the uv run command:

uv run mcp-db-explorer --db-type sqlite --connection-string my_database.db

Configuration Options

The server accepts several options via command-line arguments or environment variables:

Argument	Environment Variable	Description
--db-type	DB_TYPE or MCP_DB_TYPE	Default database engine type (sqlite, postgres, postgresql)
--connection-string	DATABASE_URL or MCP_DB_CONNECTION_STRING	Database connection string (path for SQLite, URI for PostgreSQL)
--allow-writes	ALLOW_WRITES	Enable write operations (DML/DDL queries). Disabled by default.
--allowed-dir	ALLOWED_DATABASE_DIR	Restricts SQLite database paths to be inside this directory.

Client Integration

To use this server with an MCP client (such as Claude Desktop), add the server configuration to your client configuration file.

Claude Desktop Configuration

Open your claude_desktop_config.json:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add the following configuration (use absolute paths):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-db-explorer": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "C:\\absolute\\path\\to\\mcp-db-explorer",
        "run",
        "mcp-db-explorer",
        "--db-type",
        "sqlite",
        "--connection-string",
        "C:\\absolute\\path\\to\\my_database.db"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace the paths with the correct ones for your local setup.

Testing

To run the test suite, run:

uv run pytest

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.