The MCP Toolbox for Databases is an open source MCP server that simplifies the development of tools for database access. It handles complex tasks like connection pooling, authentication, and security, allowing you to focus on building powerful database tools for AI applications.
Choose the appropriate method for your operating system:
# see releases page for other versions
export VERSION=0.21.0
curl -L -o toolbox https://storage.googleapis.com/genai-toolbox/v$VERSION/linux/amd64/toolbox
chmod +x toolbox
# see releases page for other versions
export VERSION=0.21.0
curl -L -o toolbox https://storage.googleapis.com/genai-toolbox/v$VERSION/darwin/arm64/toolbox
chmod +x toolbox
# see releases page for other versions
export VERSION=0.21.0
curl -L -o toolbox https://storage.googleapis.com/genai-toolbox/v$VERSION/darwin/amd64/toolbox
chmod +x toolbox
:: see releases page for other versions
set VERSION=0.21.0
curl -o toolbox.exe "https://storage.googleapis.com/genai-toolbox/v%VERSION%/windows/amd64/toolbox.exe"
You can also install using:
brew install mcp-toolboxdocker pull us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/database-toolbox/toolbox/toolbox:$VERSIONgo install github.com/googleapis/[email protected]tools.yaml configuration file (see Configuration section)./toolbox --tools-file "tools.yaml"
To stop the server, press ctrl+c.
from toolbox_core import ToolboxClient
# update the url to point to your server
async with ToolboxClient("http://127.0.0.1:5000") as client:
# these tools can be passed to your application!
tools = await client.load_toolset("toolset_name")
import { ToolboxClient } from '@toolbox-sdk/core';
// update the url to point to your server
const URL = 'http://127.0.0.1:5000';
let client = new ToolboxClient(URL);
// these tools can be passed to your application!
const tools = await client.loadToolset('toolsetName');
package main
import (
"github.com/googleapis/mcp-toolbox-sdk-go/tbadk"
"context"
"fmt"
)
func main() {
// Update the url to point to your server
URL := "http://127.0.0.1:5000"
ctx := context.Background()
client, err := tbadk.NewToolboxClient(URL)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println("Could not start Toolbox Client", err)
return
}
// Use this tool with ADK Go
tool, err := client.LoadTool("toolName", ctx)
if err != nil {
fmt.Println("Could not load Toolbox Tool", err)
return
}
}
The primary way to configure Toolbox is through the tools.yaml file.
Define database connections:
sources:
my-pg-source:
kind: postgres
host: 127.0.0.1
port: 5432
database: toolbox_db
user: toolbox_user
password: my-password
Define the actions an agent can perform:
tools:
search-hotels-by-name:
kind: postgres-sql
source: my-pg-source
description: Search for hotels based on name.
parameters:
- name: name
type: string
description: The name of the hotel.
statement: SELECT * FROM hotels WHERE name ILIKE '%' || $1 || '%';
Group tools together for easier loading:
toolsets:
my_first_toolset:
- my_first_tool
- my_second_tool
my_second_toolset:
- my_second_tool
- my_third_tool
Define prompts for interactions with LLMs:
prompts:
code_review:
description: "Asks the LLM to analyze code quality and suggest improvements."
messages:
- content: "Please review the following code for quality, correctness, and potential improvements: \n\n{{.code}}"
arguments:
- name: "code"
description: "The code to review"
To use custom tools with Gemini CLI:
gemini extensions install https://github.com/gemini-cli-extensions/mcp-toolbox
Several prebuilt extensions exist for specific database types, including AlloyDB, BigQuery, Cloud SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Spanner, and more. Each of these can be installed via Gemini CLI extensions.
To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:
claude mcp add-json "toolbox-for-databases" '{"command":"toolbox","args":["--tools-file","tools.yaml"]}'See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.
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.
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": {
"toolbox-for-databases": {
"command": "toolbox",
"args": [
"--tools-file",
"tools.yaml"
]
}
}
}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.
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.
To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:
1. Find your configuration file:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json2. Add this to your configuration file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"toolbox-for-databases": {
"command": "toolbox",
"args": [
"--tools-file",
"tools.yaml"
]
}
}
}3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect