Databases (read-only, switchable) MCP server

mcp-db-read-only

Let your AI assistant look at your databases without being able to change them.

Point it at MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server, ClickHouse, MongoDB, Redis or Elasticsearch, then just ask questions in plain words: "how many users signed up this week?", "what's in the orders table?", "which Redis keys hold sessions?". It can read anything you give it access to, and it cannot write, update or delete anything.

• Every popular database, one server. Switch between them in the middle of a conversation.
• Read-only, twice over. Every query is checked before it is sent, and the database itself is also told to refuse writes.
• No restart to switch. Change database, server or engine by asking.
• Optional logging, with a live page in your browser that shows every query as it happens.

flowchart LR
    Y["You"] -->|"ask in plain words"| AI["Your AI assistant"]
    AI -->|"tool call"| S["mcp-db-read-only"]
    S -->|"read-only query"| DB[("Your databases")]
    DB -->|"rows, documents, keys"| S

Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and any other MCP client.

Quick start

1. Have Node.js 22.13 or newer (node --version), or Docker.

2. Add the server to your client. For Claude Desktop, edit claudedesktopconfig.json (Settings, Developer, Edit Config). For Claude Code, create .mcp.json in your project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "databases": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@shibbirweb/mcp-db-read-only"],
      "env": {
        "DB_URL": "postgres://readonly:secret@localhost:5432/myapp"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace the DB_URL with your own database. The examples below show one for every kind.

3. Restart the client once, and ask away:

"What tables are in my database?"

"Show me the 5 newest orders."

"How many customers are in each country?"

That's it. You never need to restart again to change database; just ask the assistant to switch.

Examples for each database

Each database has a URL format, then a real example to copy and change. Put the finished URL in DB_URL.

Replace each [PLACEHOLDER] with your own value:

No password? Leave out :[PASSWORD]. No user either? Leave out [USER]:[PASSWORD]@ entirely.

MySQL and MariaDB

Format (usual port 3306):

mysql://[USER]:[PASSWORD]@[HOST]:[PORT]/[DATABASE]
mariadb://[USER]:[PASSWORD]@[HOST]:[PORT]/[DATABASE]

Example:

mysql://readonly:secret@localhost:3306/shop

"List the tables in shop." · "Describe the orders table." · "What were last month's top 10 products by revenue?"

PostgreSQL

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.