InterSystems IRIS MCP server

This MCP server for InterSystems IRIS enables seamless database interaction and automation through the Model Context Protocol. It allows Claude and other AI assistants to directly interact with your IRIS database, providing structured data access and manipulation capabilities.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Claude Desktop
• uv package manager

Installing the MCP Server

Install the MCP server using uv:

uv pip install mcp-server-iris

Configuration

Setting Up Claude Desktop

To configure Claude Desktop to use the IRIS MCP server:

1. Open Claude Desktop
2. Navigate to Settings
3. Find the MCP configuration section
4. Add the following configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "iris": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-server-iris"
      ],
      "env": {
        "IRIS_HOSTNAME": "localhost",
        "IRIS_PORT": "1972",
        "IRIS_NAMESPACE": "USER",
        "IRIS_USERNAME": "_SYSTEM",
        "IRIS_PASSWORD": "SYS"
      }
    }
  }
}

Environment Variables

Customize the following environment variables according to your IRIS setup:

• IRIS_HOSTNAME: Your IRIS server hostname (default: localhost)
• IRIS_PORT: Port where IRIS is listening (default: 1972)
• IRIS_NAMESPACE: IRIS namespace to use (default: USER)
• IRIS_USERNAME: Username for IRIS authentication
• IRIS_PASSWORD: Password for IRIS authentication

Usage

Basic Interaction

Once configured, you can ask Claude to interact with your IRIS database. For example:

• "Show me the tables in my IRIS database"
• "Run a query to show the first 5 patients from the Patient table"
• "Create a new record in the Orders table"

Example Queries

You can request Claude to perform various database operations:

1. Retrieving data: "Can you show me the top 10 orders by value from the Sales table?"

2. Updating records: "Update the status to 'Shipped' for order number 12345"

3. Schema exploration: "What columns are available in the Customer table?"

4. Running stored procedures: "Execute the GetMonthlyReport stored procedure with parameter '2024-03'"

Advanced Features

The MCP server supports complex operations such as:

• Multi-table joins
• Data transformation and analysis
• Creating temporary tables
• Executing ObjectScript code

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

• Connection errors: Verify your IRIS connection parameters
• Authentication issues: Check that your username and password are correct
• Namespace errors: Ensure the specified namespace exists and is accessible

Checking Server Status

You can verify the MCP server is running with:

ps aux | grep mcp-server-iris

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 "iris" '{"command":"uvx","args":["mcp-server-iris"],"env":{"IRIS_HOSTNAME":"localhost","IRIS_PORT":"1972","IRIS_NAMESPACE":"USER","IRIS_USERNAME":"_SYSTEM","IRIS_PASSWORD":"SYS"}}'

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": {
        "iris": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-server-iris"
            ],
            "env": {
                "IRIS_HOSTNAME": "localhost",
                "IRIS_PORT": "1972",
                "IRIS_NAMESPACE": "USER",
                "IRIS_USERNAME": "_SYSTEM",
                "IRIS_PASSWORD": "SYS"
            }
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "iris": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-server-iris"
            ],
            "env": {
                "IRIS_HOSTNAME": "localhost",
                "IRIS_PORT": "1972",
                "IRIS_NAMESPACE": "USER",
                "IRIS_USERNAME": "_SYSTEM",
                "IRIS_PASSWORD": "SYS"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect