Neon MCP server

The Neon MCP Server allows you to interact with your Neon Postgres databases using natural language commands. This powerful tool acts as a bridge between conversational requests and the Neon API, enabling you to manage database tasks without writing SQL or making direct API calls.

Setting Up Neon MCP Server

You have two options for connecting your MCP client to Neon:

Option 1: Remote Hosted MCP Server (Preview)

This option connects to Neon's managed MCP server using OAuth authentication:

1. Add the following entry to your client's MCP server configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Neon": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.neon.tech/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

2. Save the configuration file
3. Restart or refresh your MCP client
4. An OAuth window will open in your browser - follow the prompts to authorize access

By default, the remote server will operate on projects under your personal Neon account. To access organization projects, explicitly provide the org_id or project_id in your prompt.

The remote server also supports API key authentication if your client supports it:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "Neon": {
      "url": "https://mcp.neon.tech/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <$NEON_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Option 2: Local MCP Server

Run the Neon MCP server on your local machine with your Neon API key:

1. Add this configuration to your client's mcp_config file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neon": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@neondatabase/mcp-server-neon",
        "start",
        "<YOUR_NEON_API_KEY>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Prerequisites

• An MCP Client application
• A Neon account (sign up at console.neon.tech/signup)
• Node.js (≥ v18.0.0) and npm
• For local setup: a Neon API key

Troubleshooting

If your client doesn't use JSON for configuration, use this command when prompted:

npx -y @neondatabase/mcp-server-neon start <YOUR_NEON_API_KEY>

Windows Troubleshooting

On Windows, you might need to use Command Prompt or WSL:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neon": {
      "command": "cmd",
      "args": [
        "/c",
        "npx",
        "-y",
        "@neondatabase/mcp-server-neon",
        "start",
        "<YOUR_NEON_API_KEY>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Or with WSL:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "neon": {
      "command": "wsl",
      "args": [
        "npx",
        "-y",
        "@neondatabase/mcp-server-neon",
        "start",
        "<YOUR_NEON_API_KEY>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Available Features

Project Management

• List your Neon projects
• Get detailed information about specific projects
• Create new projects
• Delete existing projects

Branch Management

• Create new branches for development or testing
• Delete branches
• View branch details
• List compute endpoints for branches

SQL Query Execution

• Execute SQL queries against your databases
• Run SQL transactions
• View database tables
• Examine table schemas
• Identify slow-performing queries

Database Migrations

• Safely prepare migrations on temporary branches
• Test changes before applying to main branches
• Complete and apply migrations

Query Performance Optimization

• Get execution plans for SQL statements
• Analyze and optimize query performance
• Apply optimizations after testing

Compute Management

• List compute endpoints with details like ID, type, and size

Neon Auth

• Set up authentication infrastructure with Stack Auth integration

Example Usage

Here are some examples of natural language commands you can use:

• "Create a new Postgres database called 'my-database' with a table for users"
• "Run a migration on my 'my-project' to add a 'created_at' column to the users table"
• "Give me a summary of all my Neon projects and their contents"
• "Find the slowest queries in my database"
• "Optimize this SQL query: SELECT * FROM users WHERE email LIKE '%example.com'"

Security Considerations

The Neon MCP Server grants powerful database management capabilities through natural language. Always review and authorize actions before execution, and ensure only authorized users have access. This tool is intended for local development and IDE integrations only, not for production environments.

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 "Neon" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","mcp-remote","https://mcp.neon.tech/sse"]}'

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": {
        "Neon": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.neon.tech/sse"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "Neon": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.neon.tech/sse"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect