MCP Server Setup

Essentially, the sever is configured using environment variables.

In case of the MCP Sever running locally, under the control of an MCP client application, the latter usually provides a convenient way of creating an environment from some kind of configuration file. Below is an example of Claude Desktop configuration file that references the Exasol MCP Server.

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "exasol_db": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": ["exasol-mcp-server@latest"],
            "env": {
                "EXA_DSN": "my-dsn, e.g. demodb.exasol.com:8563",
                "EXA_USER": "my-user-name",
                "EXA_PASSWORD": "my-password",
                "EXA_MCP_SETTINGS": "{\"schemas\": {\"like_pattern\": \"MY_SCHEMA\"}"
            }
        }
    }
}

The env section of this file lists the environment variables that will be created in the environment where the MCP Server is going to run.

The environment variables can be divided into four groups. These groups are described in separate sections of the User Guide. The last section is concerned about deployment of the MCP Server as an HTTP Server.

• OpenID Setup

• Database Connection Setup

• BucketFS Access Setup

• Tool Setup

• MCP Server Deployment

Tool settings

The tool settings are stored in a single variable - EXA_MCP_SETTINGS. The settings are written in the json format. The json string can be set directly in the environment variable, as shown in the above example. Note that double quotes in the json string must be escaped, otherwise the environment variable value will be interpreted, not as text, but as a part of the outer json.

Alternatively, the settings can be written in a json file. In this case, the EXA_MCP_SETTINGS should contain the path to this file, e.g.

{
    "env": {
        "other": "variables",
        "EXA_MCP_SETTINGS": "path_to_settings.json"
    }
}

Please see the Tool Setup for details on how the MCP Server tools can be customised.

Tool List

The complete list of available tools can be found in Exasol MCP Server Tools.

Telemetry

Exasol software includes services that allow installations to check for available updates and to provide anonymized usage information. These services help ensure that software remains up to date and enable Exasol to better understand how its publicly available software is used in practice, improve product quality, prioritize features, and estimate the size of its active user base. For more information, please refer to [Exasol’s Privacy Policy](https://www.exasol.com/privacy-policy/).

To disable telemetry, you can set the environment variable EXASOL_TELEMETRY_DISABLE (any value will work).