CockroachDB MCP Server

Overview

The CockroachDB MCP Server is a natural language interface designed for LLMs and agentic applications to manage, monitor, and query data in CockroachDB. It integrates seamlessly with MCP (Model Content Protocol) clients, such as Claude Desktop or Cursor, enabling AI-driven workflows to interact directly with your database.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Tools
  • Cluster Monitoring
  • Database Operations
  • Table Management
  • Query Engine
• Installation
  • Quick Start with uvx
  • Development Installation
  • With Docker
• Configuration
  • Configuration via command line arguments
  • Configuration via Environment Variables
• Integrations
  • OpenAI Agents SDK
  • Augment
  • Claude Desktop
  • VS Code with GitHub Copilot
  • Cursor
• Testing
• Contributing
• License
• Quality Badge
• Contact

Features

• Natural Language Queries: Enables AI agents to query and create transactions using natural language, supporting complex workflows.
• Search & Filtering: Supports efficient data retrieval and searching in CockroachDB.
• Cluster Monitoring: Check and monitor the CockroachDB cluster status, including node health and replication.
• Database Operations: Perform all operations related to databases, such as creation, deletion, and configuration.
• Table Management: Handle tables, indexes, and schemas for flexible data modeling.
• Seamless MCP Integration: Works with any MCP client for smooth communication.
• Scalable & Lightweight: Designed for high-performance data operations.

Tools

The CockroachDB MCP Server Server provides tools to manage the data stored in CockroachDB.

The tools are organized into four main categories:

Cluster Monitoring

Purpose: Provides tools for monitoring and managing CockroachDB clusters.

Summary:

• Get cluster health and node status.
• Show currently running queries.
• Analyze query performance statistics.
• Retrieve replication and distribution status for tables or the whole database.
• Get query execution insights with optional keyword filtering.
• Find slow queries from statement statistics with optional keyword filtering.
• Get transaction execution insights with optional keyword filtering.
• View contention events with optional table filtering.
• Get index recommendations from query insights.

Database Operations

Purpose: Handles database-level operations and connection management.

Summary:

• Connect to a CockroachDB database.
• List, create, drop, and switch databases.
• Get connection status and active sessions.
• Retrieve database settings.

Table Management

Purpose: Provides tools for managing tables, indexes, views, and schema relationships in CockroachDB.

Summary:

• Create, drop, and describe tables and views.
• Bulk import data into tables.
• Manage indexes (create/drop).
• List tables, views, and table relationships.
• Analyze schema structure and metadata.

Query Engine

Purpose: Executes and manages SQL queries and transactions.

Summary:

• Execute SQL queries with formatting options (JSON, CSV, table).
• Run multi-statement transactions.
• Explain query plans for optimization.
• Track and retrieve query history.

Installation

The CockroachDB MCP Server supports the stdio transport and the streamable-http transport.

Quick Start with uvx

The easiest way to use the CockroachDB MCP Server is with uvx, which allows you to run it directly from GitHub (from a branch, or use a tagged release). It is recommended to use a tagged release. The main branch is under active development and may contain breaking changes. As an example, you can execute the following command to run the 0.1.0 release:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/amineelkouhen/mcp-cockroachdb.git@0.1.0 cockroachdb-mcp-server --url postgresql://localhost:26257/defaultdb

Check the release notes for the latest version in the Releases section. Additional examples are provided below.

# Run with CockroachDB URI
uvx --from git+https://github.com/amineelkouhen/mcp-cockroachdb.git cockroachdb-mcp-server --url postgresql://localhost:26257/defaultdb

# Run with individual parameters
uvx --from git+https://github.com/amineelkouhen/mcp-cockroachdb.git cockroachdb-mcp-server --host localhost --port 26257 --database defaultdb --user root --password mypassword

# See all options
uvx --from git+https://github.com/amineelkouhen/mcp-cockroachdb.git cockroachdb-mcp-server --help

# Run with streamable HTTP transport
uvx --from git+https://github.com/amineelkouhen/mcp-cockroachdb.git cockroachdb-mcp-server \
  --url postgresql://localhost:26257/defaultdb \
  --transport http \
  --http-host 0.0.0.0 \
  --http-port 8000 \
  --http-path /mcp

Development Installation

For development or if you prefer to clone the repository:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/amineelkouhen/mcp-cockroachdb.git
cd mcp-cockroachdb

# Install dependencies using uv
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv sync

# Run with CLI interface
uv run cockroachdb-mcp-server --help

# Or run the main file directly (uses environment variables)
uv run src/main.py

Once you cloned the repository, installed the dependencies and verified you can run the server, you can configure Claude Desktop or any other MCP Client to use this MCP Server running the main file directly (it uses environment variables). This is usually preferred for development. The following example is for Claude Desktop, but the same applies to any other MCP Client.

1. Specify your CockroachDB credentials and TLS configuration
2. Retrieve your uv command full path (e.g. which uv)
3. Edit the claude_desktop_config.json configuration file    - on a MacOS, at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cockroach": {
            "command": "",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "",
                "run",
                "src/main.py"
            ],
            "env": {
                "CRDB_HOST": "",
                "CRDB_PORT": "",
                "CRDB_DATABASE": "",
                "CRDB_USERNAME": "",
                "CRDB_PWD": "",
                "CRDB_SSL_MODE": "disable|allow|prefer|require|verify-ca|verify-full",
                "CRDB_SSL_CA_PATH": "",
                "CRDB_SSL_KEYFILE": "",
                "CRDB_SSL_CERTFILE": "",
            }
        }
    }
}

You can troubleshoot problems by tailing the log file.

tail -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp-server-cockroach.log

With Docker Compose (Local Development)

For local development and testing, use the provided docker-compose.yaml to spin up both CockroachDB and the MCP server:

# Start CockroachDB and MCP server
docker compose up -d

# The MCP server is available at http://localhost:8000/mcp/
# CockroachDB UI is available at http://localhost:8080

# View logs
docker compose logs -f mcp-server

# Stop and clean up
docker compose down -v

With Docker

You can use a dockerized deployment of this server. You can either build your image or use the official CockroachDB MCP Docker image.

If you'd like to build your image, the CockroachDB MCP Server provides a Dockerfile. Build this server's image with:

docker build -t mcp-cockroachdb .

Finally, configure the client to create the container at start-up. An example for Claude Desktop is provided below. Edit the claude_desktop_config.json and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cockroach": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run",
                "--rm",
                "--name",
                "cockroachdb-mcp-server",
                "-e", "CRDB_HOST=",
                "-e", "CRDB_PORT=",
                "-e", "CRDB_DATABASE=",
                "-e", "CRDB_USERNAME=",
                "mcp-cockroachdb"]
    }
  }
}

To use the CockroachDB MCP Docker image, just replace your image name (mcp-cockroachdb in the example above) with mcp/cockroachdb.

Configuration

The CockroachDB MCP Server can be configured in two ways: either via command-line arguments or via environment variables. The precedence is: CLI arguments > environment variables > default values.

Configuration via command line arguments

When using the CLI interface, you can configure the server with command line arguments:

# Basic CockroachDB connection
uvx --from git+https://github.com/amineelkouhen/mcp-cockroachdb.git cockroachdb-mcp-server \
  --host localhost \
  --port 26257 \
  --db defaultdb \
  --user root \
  --password mypassword

# Using CockroachDB URI (simpler)
uvx --from git+https://github.com/amineelkouhen/mcp-cockroachdb.git cockroachdb-mcp-server \
  --url postgresql://root@localhost:26257/defaultdb

# SSL connection
uvx --from git+https://github.com/amineelkouhen/mcp-cockroachdb.git cockroachdb-mcp-server \
  --url postgresql://user:pass@cockroach.example.com:26257/defaultdb?sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=path/to/ca.crt&sslcert=path/to/client.username.crt&sslkey=path/to/client.username.key

# See all available options
uvx --from git+https://github.com/amineelkouhen/mcp-cockroachdb.git cockroachdb-mcp-server --help

Available CLI Options:

• --url - CockroachDB connection URI (postgresql://user:pass@host:port/db)
• --host - CockroachDB hostname
• --port - CockroachDB port (default: 26257)
• --db - CockroachDB database name (default: defaultdb)
• --user - CockroachDB username
• --password - CockroachDB password
• --ssl-mode - SSL mode - Possible values: require, verify-ca, verify-full, disable (default)
• --ssl-key - Path to SSL Client key file
• --ssl-cert - Path to SSL Client certificate file
• --ssl-ca-cert - Path to CA (Root) certificate file'
• --transport - MCP transport to use (stdio or http)
• --http-host - HTTP host to bind for streamable HTTP transport
• --http-port - HTTP port to bind for streamable HTTP transport
• --http-path - HTTP path for streamable HTTP transport (e.g., /mcp)
• --stateless-http - Enable stateless HTTP mode for horizontal scaling
• --use-env - Use environment variables for CockroachDB configuration

Configuration via Environment Variables

If desired, you can use environment variables. Defaults are provided for all variables.

Name	Description	Default Value
CRDB_HOST	The host name or address of a CockroachDB node or load balancer.	127.0.0.1
CRDB_PORT	The port number of the SQL interface of the CockroachDB node or load balancer.	26257
CRDB_DATABASE	A database name to use as the current database.	defaultdb
CRDB_USERNAME	The SQL user that will own the client session.	root
CRDB_PWD	The user's password.	None
CRDB_SSL_MODE	Which type of secure connection to use.	disable
CRDB_SSL_CA_PATH	Path to the CA certificate, when sslmode is not disable.	None
CRDB_SSL_CERTFILE	Path to the client certificate, when sslmode is not disable.	None
CRDB_SSL_KEYFILE	Path to the client private key, when sslmode is not disable.	None

There are several ways to set environment variables:

1. Using a .env File:   Place a .env file in your project directory with key-value pairs for each environment variable. Tools like python-dotenv, pipenv, and uv can automatically load these variables when running your application. This is a convenient and secure way to manage configuration, as it keeps sensitive data out of your shell history and version control (if .env is in .gitignore). For example, create a .env file with the following content from the .env.example file provided in the repository:

cp .env.example .env

Then edit the .env file to set your CockroachDB configuration:

OR,

2. Setting Variables in the Shell:   You can export environment variables directly in your shell before running your application. For example:

export CRDB_URL= postgresql://root@127.0.0.1:26257/defaultdb

This method is helpful for temporary overrides or quick testing.

Integrations

Integrating this MCP Server with development frameworks like OpenAI Agents SDK or using tools like Claude Desktop, VS Code, or Augment is described in the following sections.

OpenAI Agents SDK

Integrate this MCP Server with the OpenAI Agents SDK. Read the documents to learn more about the integration of the SDK with MCP.

Install the Python SDK.

pip install openai-agents

Configure the OpenAI token:

export OPENAI_API_KEY=""

And run the application.

python3 examples/cockroachdb_assistant.py

You can troubleshoot your agent workflows using the OpenAI dashboard.

Augment

You can configure the CockroachDB MCP Server in Augment by importing the server via JSON:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "CockroachDB MCP Server": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/cockroachdb/mcp-cockroachdb.git",
        "cockroachdb-mcp-server",
        "--url",
        "postgresql://root@localhost:26257/defaultdb"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

The simplest way to configure MCP clients is using uvx. Add the following JSON to your claude_desktop_config.json, remember to provide the full path to uvx.

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cockroach-mcp-server": {
            "type": "stdio",
            "command": "/opt/homebrew/bin/uvx",
            "args": [
                "--from", "git+https://github.com/amineelkouhen/mcp-cockroachdb.git",
                "cockroachdb-mcp-server",
                "--url", "postgresql://localhost:26257/defaultdb"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Please follow the prompt and give the details to configure the server and connect to CockroachDB (e.g., using a managed CockroachDB instance). The procedure will create the proper configuration in the claude_desktop_config.json configuration file.

VS Code with GitHub Copilot

To use the CockroachDB MCP Server with VS Code, you must enable the agent mode tools. Add the following to your settings.json:

{
  "chat.agent.enabled": true
}

You can start the GitHub desired version of the CockroachDB MCP server using uvx by adding the following JSON to your settings.json:

"mcp": {
    "servers": {
        "CockroachDB MCP Server": {
        "type": "stdio",
        "command": "uvx", 
        "args": [
            "--from", "git+https://github.com/amineelkouhen/mcp-cockroachdb.git",
            "cockroachdb-mcp-server",
            "--url", "postgresql://root@localhost:26257/defaultdb"
        ]
        },
    }
},

Alternatively, you can start the server using uv and configure your mcp.json or settings.json. This is usually desired for development.

{
  "servers": {
    "cockroach": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "",
        "run",
        "src/main.py"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CRDB_HOST": "",
        "CRDB_PORT": "",
        "CRDB_DATABASE": "",
        "CRDB_USERNAME": "",
        "CRDB_PWD": ""
      }
    }
  }
}

For more information, see the VS Code documentation.

Cursor

Read the configuration options here and input your selections with this link:

Testing

You can use the MCP Inspector for visual debugging of this MCP Server.

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run src/main.py

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a new branch (feature-branch)
3. Commit your changes
4. Push to your branch and submit a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Quality Badge

Contact

If you have any questions or need support, please feel free to contact us through GitHub Issues.