Hosted MCPUtility

Metabase MCP Server

Run cards, dashboards, and SQL queries against a Metabase instance.

Setup

4 fields · 2 secret

Credentials are injected into an ephemeral sandbox at boot and destroyed with it.

Runtime

Standard

Sessions run up to 60 minutes before the sandbox is reclaimed.

Models

60+ AI models

Chat with 60+ AI models on the same workflow — switch to a different model mid-conversation and re-run the same prompt, or use Compare mode to put several side-by-side.

What the Metabase MCP server does

How models use it and what it is built for.

The Metabase MCP server puts your existing BI layer behind an AI model. Instead of asking the model to guess at your schema, it can list the questions and dashboards your team already built, run them, and read the results.

That distinction matters. A raw database MCP hands the model a schema and hopes it writes correct SQL. Metabase hands it curated, reviewed queries — so "what was revenue last quarter" resolves to the same number your finance team sees, not a fresh join the model invented.

It authenticates with a Metabase username and password against your instance URL, and inherits exactly the permissions of that account.

What a model can do with it

Concrete operations exposed as tools.

  • List and search saved questions (cards) and dashboards
  • Execute a saved question and return its result set
  • Run ad-hoc SQL against any connected database
  • Inspect database, table and field metadata
  • Read dashboard structure — which cards, which filters
  • Chain results — run a question, then drill into an outlier with SQL

How to set up the Metabase MCP server

In order. Each step assumes the previous one worked.

  1. 01

    Make the instance reachable

    The sandbox connects over the public internet. Metabase Cloud works out of the box. A self-hosted instance on a private network needs a tunnel (ngrok, Tailscale Funnel, Cloudflare Tunnel) or an IP allowlist entry.

  2. 02

    Create a dedicated Metabase user

    Do not use your admin login. Create a service user and give it access only to the collections and databases the agent should reach. The MCP server can do exactly what that user can do.

  3. 03

    Supply URL, username and password

    Provide the base URL (https://your-org.metabaseapp.com — no trailing path), plus the service user credentials. All three are injected at sandbox boot.

  4. 04

    Confirm with a list call

    Ask the model to list available dashboards. If that returns your collections, both the URL and the credentials are right.

Configuration

What you provide before the sandbox starts.

Metabase API KeyRequiredSecret

Service-account API key — create at Settings → Authentication → API Keys.

Metabase PasswordRequiredSecret

Password for the Metabase user.

Metabase URLRequired

Your Metabase base URL — e.g. https://your-org.metabaseapp.com.

Metabase UsernameRequired

Email of the Metabase user the agent will act as.

Example prompts

Paste any of these into Agent Studio once the server is connected.

List every dashboard I have access to and tell me which ones mention revenue.

Run the "Weekly Active Users" question and summarise the trend over the last 8 weeks.

Which tables in the warehouse have a created_at column? Describe their schemas.

Run the signups question, find the biggest week-over-week drop, then query the raw table to explain it.

Limits and things to watch

Known constraints, stated plainly.

  • The agent inherits the permissions of the account you supply — scope that account deliberately.
  • Self-hosted instances behind a VPN or private subnet are unreachable without a tunnel.
  • Very large result sets are truncated before they reach the model context; aggregate in the question rather than returning raw rows.
  • Write SQL is possible if the underlying Metabase connection allows it. Use a read-only database connection if you want a hard guarantee.

Test Metabase against a real model

Deploy the server hosted, then watch which tools a model actually reaches for — with full JSON input and output on every call. Switch models mid-conversation to compare how each one uses the same server.

Frequently asked questions

About the Metabase MCP server.

Can the model write to my database through Metabase?

Only if the Metabase database connection itself permits writes and the account has native query rights. The safest configuration is a Metabase database connection created with read-only warehouse credentials — then no prompt can cause a write.

Why use Metabase MCP instead of connecting Postgres directly?

Curation. Your saved questions encode business logic — which rows count as active, how revenue is recognised, which test accounts to exclude. A direct database connection loses all of it and the model reinvents definitions on every query.

Does it work with Metabase Cloud?

Yes, and it is the easiest setup — Cloud instances are already publicly reachable, so you only need the URL and a service account.

What Metabase version is required?

Any version exposing the standard /api session and card endpoints, which covers all currently supported releases. Very old self-hosted installations may lack some dashboard endpoints.

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