DevDB MCP server

DevDb is a lightweight VS Code extension that automatically connects to your databases and provides powerful features to aid development and debugging. It supports multiple database types and integrates seamlessly with various frameworks and development environments.

Installation

DevDb is available through the Visual Studio Code Marketplace. You can install it in several ways:

From VS Code Marketplace

1. Open VS Code
2. Go to the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X)
3. Search for "DevDb"
4. Click Install

Using Command Line

code --install-extension damms005.devdb

Requirements

• VS Code 1.83 or newer
• A project using any supported database (SQLite, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, or Microsoft SQL Server)

Supported Platforms

• Linux (Linux-x64, Linux-arm64, Linux-arm, Alpine-x64)
• macOS (Darwin-x64, Darwin-arm64 Apple Silicon)
• Windows (Win32-x64)

Connecting to Databases

DevDb offers two ways to connect to your databases:

Zero-Config Auto-Discovery

For supported environments, DevDb automatically discovers and connects to your database without any manual configuration:

• DDEV applications
• Adonis with default .env configuration (MySQL and PostgreSQL with Lucid ORM)
• Django with settings.py (SQLite, MySQL, and PostgreSQL)
• Ruby on Rails with config/database.yml (SQLite, MySQL, and PostgreSQL)
• Laravel with default configurations (SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MS SQL)
• Containerized Laravel Sail setups (including dev containers)

Manual Configuration

If your environment isn't supported for auto-discovery, create a .devdbrc file in your project root:

[
  {
    "name": "My MySQL database",
    "type": "mysql",
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "port": "3306",
    "username": "root",
    "password": "12345",
    "database": "test"
  },
  {
    "type": "sqlite",
    "path": "/path/to/database.sqlite"
  }
]

DevDb provides helpful snippets to create configurations quickly:

• Type devdb mysql for MySQL template
• Type devdb postgres for PostgreSQL template
• Type devdb sqlite for SQLite template
• Type devdb mssql for Microsoft SQL Server template
• Type devdb mariadb for MariaDB template

Remember to add .devdbrc to your .gitignore file to protect sensitive information.

Using DevDb

Basic Controls

• Open DevDb panel: Cmd+K Cmd+D (Mac) or Ctrl+K Ctrl+D (Windows/Linux)
• Quick table access: Cmd+K Cmd+G (Mac) or Ctrl+K Ctrl+G (Windows/Linux)
• Open table in current tab: Cmd+Click (Mac) or Ctrl+Click (Windows/Linux) on table name
• Edit a cell value: Cmd+Click (Mac) or Ctrl+Click (Windows/Linux) on the value
• Preview a value: Click on any value to see it in the preview pane

Data Manipulation

• Delete a row: Click the trash icon on a table row
• Set a value to null: Click the "Set null" button on a value
• During editing sessions:
  • Undo changes: Cmd+Z (Mac) or Ctrl+Z (Windows/Linux)
  • Redo changes: Cmd+Y (Mac) or Ctrl+Y (Windows/Linux)
  • Save changes: Cmd+S (Mac) or Ctrl+S (Windows/Linux)

MCP Server Setup

DevDb can provide database connections to MCP clients like Cursor, Windsurf, etc.:

1. Click the hammer icon in DevDb to copy MCP settings
2. Paste the settings into your IDE's MCP configuration file (e.g., .vscode/mcp.json or windsurf/mcp_config.json)

Your AI-powered IDE should now be able to access your database information.

Framework-Specific Features

Laravel Integration

• Eloquent Model Code Lens: View underlying tables and generate model factories
• Query Explainer: Analyze MySQL query execution plans through integration with MySQL Visual Explain

Context Menu Features

Right-click on any table name/model/entity reference in your code to open it directly in DevDb.

Data Export

Export your table data as:

• Well-formatted JSON
• SQL INSERT statements

Data can be copied to clipboard or saved to a file.

URI Handler

DevDb provides a custom URI handler to open specific tables from external links:

vscode://devdb/open/table?connectionId=123&database=main&table=users&workspace=...

This allows integration with other tools or creation of shortcuts to frequently accessed tables.

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 "devdb" '{"command":"code","args":["--open-url","vscode://damms005.devdb/mcp/server"]}'

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": {
        "devdb": {
            "command": "code",
            "args": [
                "--open-url",
                "vscode://damms005.devdb/mcp/server"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "devdb": {
            "command": "code",
            "args": [
                "--open-url",
                "vscode://damms005.devdb/mcp/server"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect