The MongoDB MCP Server provides a Model Context Protocol interface for interacting with MongoDB databases and MongoDB Atlas. This tool allows AI assistants to directly query and manage MongoDB resources through a standardized protocol.
Before using the MongoDB MCP Server, ensure you have:
The MongoDB MCP Server can be installed and configured in several ways. Here are the most common approaches, all using the --readOnly flag by default to ensure safe access.
npx -y mongodb-mcp-server --connectionString mongodb://localhost:27017/myDatabase --readOnly
npx -y mongodb-mcp-server --apiClientId "your-atlas-service-accounts-client-id" --apiClientSecret "your-atlas-service-accounts-client-secret" --readOnly
docker run --rm -i \
-e MDB_MCP_CONNECTION_STRING="mongodb+srv://username:[email protected]/myDatabase" \
-e MDB_MCP_READ_ONLY="true" \
mongodb/mongodb-mcp-server:latest
npx -y mongodb-mcp-server --transport http --httpHost=127.0.0.1 --httpPort=3000
⚠️ Security Notice: HTTP transport is NOT recommended for production use without implementing proper authentication and security measures.
The server supports various configuration options that can be set via command-line arguments or environment variables:
To use the Atlas API tools:
For example, to list projects with minimum permissions, assign the "Organization Read Only" role to your service account.
To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:
claude mcp add-json "MongoDB" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","mongodb-mcp-server"],"env":{"MDB_MCP_CONNECTION_STRING":"mongodb://localhost:27017/myDatabase"}}'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": {
"MongoDB": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"mongodb-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"MDB_MCP_CONNECTION_STRING": "mongodb://localhost:27017/myDatabase"
}
}
}
}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": {
"MongoDB": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"mongodb-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"MDB_MCP_CONNECTION_STRING": "mongodb://localhost:27017/myDatabase"
}
}
}
}3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect