MariaDB MCP Server

Last updated: 2026-05-25

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets AI agents connect to external tools and data sources. The MariaDB MCP Server gives agents direct, controlled access to a MariaDB database — reading schemas, running queries, and optionally performing vector/semantic search — without requiring the developer to write integration code.

The server is open source (MIT), maintained by the MariaDB Foundation at github.com/MariaDB/mcp.

Requires: Python 3.11+, uv package manager, MariaDB server.

What Agents Can Do

With the MariaDB MCP Server connected, an agent can:

• List databases and tables
• Read table schemas including foreign key relationships
• Run read-only SQL queries (SELECT, SHOW, DESCRIBE)
• Create databases
• Perform semantic/vector search on stored documents (when embedding provider is configured)

Write operations (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) are disabled by default.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/MariaDB/mcp
cd mcp
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your database credentials

Minimum .env configuration:

DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_USER=myuser
DB_PASSWORD=mypassword
DB_NAME=mydatabase
MCP_READ_ONLY=true

Run the server:

uv run server.py

Connecting Claude Code, Cursor, or Windsurf

Use the official server from a local clone (see Installation). Point your MCP config at uv run server.py and the .env file with database credentials.

Claude Code (project-scoped .mcp.json at the repo root):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mariadb": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/absolute/path/to/mcp",
        "run",
        "server.py"
      ],
      "envFile": "/absolute/path/to/mcp/.env"
    }
  }
}

Or add via CLI (replace paths):

claude mcp add mariadb -- uv --directory /absolute/path/to/mcp run server.py

Cursor / VS Code — same mcpServers block in MCP settings; use absolute paths.

SSE or HTTP — run uv run server.py --transport sse (or http) and connect to the URL; see MariaDB/mcp README — Integration.

Not official: PyPI package mcp-server-mariadb (uvx mcp-server-mariadb) is a third-party project, not maintained by the MariaDB Foundation. Prefer github.com/MariaDB/mcp unless you have a specific reason to use the PyPI package.

Available Tools

Vector & Semantic Search (Optional)

When an embedding provider is configured, additional tools are available for building RAG pipelines directly through the MCP interface:

Configure an embedding provider in .env:

EMBEDDING_PROVIDER=openai   # or gemini or huggingface
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

For building pure vector search applications, using MariaDB's native VECTOR type and VEC_DISTANCE_* functions directly is more efficient. The MCP vector tools are useful for quick prototyping and when AI agents need to manage the vector store themselves. See the mariadb-vector skill for native vector SQL.

Security: Read-Only Access

The MCP_READ_ONLY=true setting enforces read-only at the application level by filtering queries. For production or shared environments, also restrict at the database level:

CREATE USER 'mcp_agent'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT SELECT, SHOW DATABASES ON *.* TO 'mcp_agent'@'localhost';
-- Do NOT grant INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, DROP

Application-level read-only alone is not sufficient — database-level privileges are the reliable guarantee.

Key Gotchas

• uv is required: the MCP server uses uv for dependency management, not pip directly. Install: pip install uv or brew install uv.
• Read-only is not fully enforced in software: rely on database-level privileges, not just MCP_READ_ONLY=true.
• Vector tools are disabled until EMBEDDING_PROVIDER is set in .env.
• Connection pooling defaults to 10 connections — tune MCP_MAX_POOL_SIZE for concurrent agent use.
• SSL/TLS: configure DB_SSL_CA, DB_SSL_CERT, DB_SSL_KEY in .env for remote or production databases.
• Enterprise version: MariaDB also offers a MariaDB Enterprise MCP Server with additional access control and multi-agent features. See mariadb.com/products/mcp-server.

Sources

• MariaDB MCP Server — GitHub
• MariaDB MCP Server product page — mariadb.com
• Connect Claude Code to tools via MCP — Claude Code Docs

For topics not covered here, see the official MariaDB documentation at mariadb.com/docs.