Atlan Data Catalog MCP server for AI agents

The Atlan Model Context Protocol (MCP) server enables AI agents to interact with Atlan data catalog services, allowing them to search, query, and manage data assets directly from AI interfaces like Claude or Cursor.

Installation Options

You can install the Atlan MCP server using either Docker (recommended) or the uv package manager.

Prerequisites

Before installing, you'll need:

An Atlan API key (generate one by following the API authentication documentation)
Your Atlan instance URL
An optional agent ID if you're using one

Docker Installation

Prerequisites

Docker installed on your system
Verify Docker is running with:
```
docker --version
```

Configure in Claude Desktop

Navigate to Claude > Settings > Developer > Edit Config > claude_desktop_config.json
Add the following configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "atlan": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "ATLAN_API_KEY=<YOUR_API_KEY>",
        "-e",
        "ATLAN_BASE_URL=https://<YOUR_INSTANCE>.atlan.com",
        "-e",
        "ATLAN_AGENT_ID=<YOUR_AGENT_ID>",
        "ghcr.io/atlanhq/atlan-mcp-server:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Configure in Cursor

Open Cursor > Settings > Tools & Integrations > New MCP Server
Add the same JSON configuration as above

UV Installation

Prerequisites

Install uv using one of these methods:

# macOS/Linux
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Windows (PowerShell)
powershell -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

# If you have Python/pip already
pip install uv

Verify installation:
```
uv --version
```

Configure in Claude Desktop

Navigate to Claude > Settings > Developer > Edit Config > claude_desktop_config.json
Add the following configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "atlan": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["atlan-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "ATLAN_API_KEY": "<YOUR_API_KEY>",
        "ATLAN_BASE_URL": "https://<YOUR_INSTANCE>.atlan.com",
        "ATLAN_AGENT_ID": "<YOUR_AGENT_ID>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configure in Cursor

Open Cursor > Settings > Tools & Integrations > New MCP Server
Add the same JSON configuration as above

Available Tools

The Atlan MCP server provides several tools for interacting with Atlan:

Tool	Description
`search_assets`	Search for assets based on conditions
`get_assets_by_dsl`	Retrieve assets using a DSL query
`traverse_lineage`	Retrieve lineage for an asset
`update_assets`	Update asset attributes (descriptions, certificates)
`create_glossaries`	Create glossaries
`create_glossary_categories`	Create glossary categories
`create_glossary_terms`	Create glossary terms
`create_dq_rules`	Create data quality rules on tables/views
`query_asset`	Execute SQL queries on table/view assets

Tool Access Control

You can restrict which tools are available by using the RESTRICTED_TOOLS environment variable.

Docker Configuration Example

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "atlan": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "ATLAN_API_KEY=<YOUR_API_KEY>",
        "-e",
        "ATLAN_BASE_URL=https://<YOUR_INSTANCE>.atlan.com",
        "-e",
        "ATLAN_AGENT_ID=<YOUR_AGENT_ID>",
        "-e",
        "RESTRICTED_TOOLS=get_assets_by_dsl_tool,update_assets_tool",
        "ghcr.io/atlanhq/atlan-mcp-server:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

UV Configuration Example

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "atlan": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["atlan-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "ATLAN_API_KEY": "<YOUR_API_KEY>",
        "ATLAN_BASE_URL": "https://<YOUR_INSTANCE>.atlan.com",
        "ATLAN_AGENT_ID": "<YOUR_AGENT_ID>",
        "RESTRICTED_TOOLS": "get_assets_by_dsl_tool,update_assets_tool"
      }
    }
  }
}

Common Restriction Patterns

Read-Only Access

RESTRICTED_TOOLS=update_assets_tool,create_glossaries,create_glossary_categories,create_glossary_terms,create_dq_rules_tool

Disable DSL Queries

RESTRICTED_TOOLS=get_assets_by_dsl_tool

Minimal Access (Search Only)

RESTRICTED_TOOLS=get_assets_by_dsl_tool,update_assets_tool,traverse_lineage_tool,create_glossaries,create_glossary_categories,create_glossary_terms,create_dq_rules_tool

Transport Modes

The server supports three transport modes for different deployment scenarios:

stdio (Default): Ideal for local development and IDE integrations
SSE (Server-Sent Events): Best for remote deployments and web browsers
streamable-http: Suitable for HTTP-based remote connections

Troubleshooting

If Claude Desktop shows an error like spawn uv ENOENT, it likely can't find the uv command. To fix this:

Verify uv is installed and in your PATH
Run which uv to find the installation path
Update Claude's configuration to use the exact path from whereis uv

For additional support, reach out to [email protected] or create an issue in the GitHub repository.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "Atlan-MCP" '{"command":"uv","args":["run","/path/to/your/agent-toolkit/modelcontextprotocol/.venv/bin/atlan-mcp-server"],"env":{"ATLAN_API_KEY":"your_api_key","ATLAN_BASE_URL":"https://your-instance.atlan.com","ATLAN_AGENT_ID":"your_agent_id"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "Atlan MCP": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "/path/to/your/agent-toolkit/modelcontextprotocol/.venv/bin/atlan-mcp-server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ATLAN_API_KEY": "your_api_key",
                "ATLAN_BASE_URL": "https://your-instance.atlan.com",
                "ATLAN_AGENT_ID": "your_agent_id"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "Atlan MCP": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "/path/to/your/agent-toolkit/modelcontextprotocol/.venv/bin/atlan-mcp-server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ATLAN_API_KEY": "your_api_key",
                "ATLAN_BASE_URL": "https://your-instance.atlan.com",
                "ATLAN_AGENT_ID": "your_agent_id"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect