BigQuery Analysis MCP server

The BigQuery Analysis MCP Server enables you to execute SQL queries against Google BigQuery with built-in safety features like query validation, size limits, and protection against data modification operations. The server provides a secure interface for running queries and getting structured JSON results.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v16 or higher)
• Google Cloud authentication setup

Setting Up Authentication

Authentication with Google Cloud is required. Use one of these methods:

1. Login with gcloud CLI:

   gcloud auth application-default login
   

2. Use a service account key:

   export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/path/to/service-account-key.json"
   

Configuration with Claude Desktop

To use the server with Claude Desktop, add a server configuration to your Claude config file:

MacOS:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Windows:

%APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add this configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bigquery-analysis-server": {
      "command": "/path/to/bigquery-analysis-server/build/index.js"
    }
  }
}

Using the MCP Server

The server provides two main tools for interacting with BigQuery:

Dry Run Query

The dry_run_query tool validates a query and estimates its processing size without executing it:

dry_run_query("SELECT * FROM `bigquery-public-data.samples.shakespeare` LIMIT 10")

This will:

• Check if the query is syntactically valid
• Estimate the data processing size
• Verify the query size is under the 1TB limit

Run Query with Validation

The run_query_with_validation tool executes queries after performing safety checks:

run_query_with_validation("SELECT word, word_count FROM `bigquery-public-data.samples.shakespeare` WHERE corpus='hamlet' LIMIT 10")

This will:

• Detect and reject any DML statements (data modification queries)
• Ensure data processing is under 1TB
• Execute the query and return results in JSON format

Debugging

Since MCP servers communicate over standard I/O, debugging can be challenging. Use the MCP Inspector tool:

npm run inspector

This will provide a URL to access debugging tools in your browser, making it easier to monitor communication and troubleshoot issues.

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 "bigquery-analysis-server" '{"command":"/path/to/bigquery-analysis-server/build/index.js"}'

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": {
        "bigquery-analysis-server": {
            "command": "/path/to/bigquery-analysis-server/build/index.js"
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "bigquery-analysis-server": {
            "command": "/path/to/bigquery-analysis-server/build/index.js"
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect