metabase-server MCP Server

metabase-server MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server for Metabase integration.

This is a TypeScript-based MCP server that implements integration with Metabase API. It allows AI assistants to interact with Metabase, providing access to:

• Dashboards, questions/cards, and databases as resources
• Tools for listing and executing Metabase queries
• Ability to view and interact with Metabase data

Features

Resources

• List and access Metabase resources via metabase:// URIs
• Access dashboards, cards/questions, and databases
• JSON content type for structured data access

Tools

• list_dashboards - List all dashboards in Metabase
• list_cards - List all questions/cards in Metabase
• list_databases - List all databases in Metabase
• execute_card - Execute a Metabase question/card and get results
• get_dashboard_cards - Get all cards in a dashboard
• execute_query - Execute a SQL query against a Metabase database

Configuration

Before running the server, you need to set environment variables for authentication. The server supports two methods:

1. API Key (Preferred):

   • METABASE_URL: The URL of your Metabase instance (e.g., https://your-metabase-instance.com).
   • METABASE_API_KEY: Your Metabase API key.

2. Username/Password (Fallback):

   • METABASE_URL: The URL of your Metabase instance.
   • METABASE_USERNAME: Your Metabase username.
   • METABASE_PASSWORD: Your Metabase password.

The server will first check for METABASE_API_KEY. If it's set, API key authentication will be used. If METABASE_API_KEY is not set, the server will fall back to using METABASE_USERNAME and METABASE_PASSWORD. You must provide credentials for at least one of these methods.

Example setup:

Using API Key:

# Required environment variables
export METABASE_URL=https://your-metabase-instance.com
export METABASE_API_KEY=your_metabase_api_key

Or, using Username/Password:

# Required environment variables
export METABASE_URL=https://your-metabase-instance.com
export METABASE_USERNAME=your_username
export METABASE_PASSWORD=your_password

You can set these environment variables in your shell profile or use a .env file with a package like dotenv.

Development

Install dependencies:

npm install

Build the server:

npm run build

For development with auto-rebuild:

npm run watch

Installation

# Oneliner, suitable for CI environment
git clone https://github.com/imlewc/metabase-server.git && cd metabase-server && npm i && npm run build && npm link

To use with Claude Desktop, add the server config:

On MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json On Windows: %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "metabase-server": {
      "command": "metabase-server",
      "env": {
        "METABASE_URL": "https://your-metabase-instance.com",
        // Use API Key (preferred)
        "METABASE_API_KEY": "your_metabase_api_key"
        // Or Username/Password (if API Key is not set)
        // "METABASE_USERNAME": "your_username",
        // "METABASE_PASSWORD": "your_password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Note: You can also set these environment variables in your system instead of in the config file if you prefer.

Installing via Smithery

To install metabase-server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @imlewc/metabase-server --client claude

Installing via Claude Code CLI

To install metabase-server for Claude Code CLI:

claude mcp add metabase-server -s user \
  -e METABASE_URL="https://your-metabase-instance.com" \
  -e METABASE_USERNAME="[email protected]" \
  -e METABASE_PASSWORD="your-password" \
  -- npx -y @imlewc/metabase-server

Or using API Key (preferred):

claude mcp add metabase-server -s user \
  -e METABASE_URL="https://your-metabase-instance.com" \
  -e METABASE_API_KEY="your-api-key" \
  -- npx -y @imlewc/metabase-server

Configuration will be written to ~/.claude.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "metabase-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@imlewc/metabase-server"],
      "env": {
        "METABASE_URL": "https://your-metabase-instance.com",
        "METABASE_USERNAME": "[email protected]",
        "METABASE_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting

If MCP server fails to connect, check the logs:

cat ~/.claude/debug/latest | grep -i metabase

Common issues:

• Environment variables not configured ("env": {} is empty)
• Invalid URL format (must include https://)
• Incorrect credentials

Debugging

Since MCP servers communicate over stdio, debugging can be challenging. We recommend using the MCP Inspector, which is available as a package script:

npm run inspector

The Inspector will provide a URL to access debugging tools in your browser.

Testing

After configuring the environment variables as described in the "Configuration" section, you can manually test the server's authentication. The MCP Inspector (npm run inspector) is a useful tool for sending requests to the server.

1. Testing with API Key Authentication

1. Set the METABASE_URL and METABASE_API_KEY environment variables with your Metabase instance URL and a valid API key.
2. Ensure METABASE_USERNAME and METABASE_PASSWORD are unset or leave them, as the API key should take precedence.
3. Start the server: npm run build && node build/index.js (or use your chosen method for running the server, like via Claude Desktop config).
4. Check the server logs. You should see a message indicating that it's using API key authentication (e.g., "Using Metabase API Key for authentication.").
5. Using an MCP client or the MCP Inspector, try calling a tool, for example, tools/call with {"name": "list_dashboards"}.
6. Verify that the tool call is successful and you receive the expected data.

2. Testing with Username/Password Authentication (Fallback)

1. Ensure the METABASE_API_KEY environment variable is unset.
2. Set METABASE_URL, METABASE_USERNAME, and METABASE_PASSWORD with valid credentials for your Metabase instance.
3. Start the server.
4. Check the server logs. You should see a message indicating that it's using username/password authentication (e.g., "Using Metabase username/password for authentication." followed by "Authenticating with Metabase using username/password...").
5. Using an MCP client or the MCP Inspector, try calling the list_dashboards tool.
6. Verify that the tool call is successful.

3. Testing Authentication Failures

• Invalid API Key:
  1. Set METABASE_URL and an invalid METABASE_API_KEY. Ensure METABASE_USERNAME and METABASE_PASSWORD variables are unset.
  2. Start the server.
  3. Attempt to call a tool (e.g., list_dashboards). The tool call should fail, and the server logs might indicate an authentication error from Metabase (e.g., "Metabase API error: Invalid X-API-Key").
• Invalid Username/Password:
  1. Ensure METABASE_API_KEY is unset. Set METABASE_URL and invalid METABASE_USERNAME/METABASE_PASSWORD.
  2. Start the server.
  3. Attempt to call a tool. The tool call should fail due to failed session authentication. The server logs might show "Authentication failed" or "Failed to authenticate with Metabase".
• Missing Credentials:
  1. Unset METABASE_API_KEY, METABASE_USERNAME, and METABASE_PASSWORD. Set only METABASE_URL.
  2. Attempt to start the server.
  3. The server should fail to start and log an error message stating that authentication credentials (either API key or username/password) are required (e.g., "Either (METABASE_URL and METABASE_API_KEY) or (METABASE_URL, METABASE_USERNAME, and METABASE_PASSWORD) environment variables are required").