LanceDB MCP server

This MCP server provides a Model Context Protocol implementation for LanceDB vector database operations, enabling you to store, search, and manage vector embeddings and their associated metadata efficiently.

Installation

To get started with the LanceDB MCP server, follow these installation steps:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/lancedb_mcp.git
cd lancedb_mcp

# Install dependencies using uv
uv pip install -e .

Configuration

The server can be configured using environment variables:

• LANCEDB_URI: Path to LanceDB storage (default: ".lancedb")

Integrating with Claude Desktop

The LanceDB MCP server can be integrated with Claude Desktop by adding it to your configuration:

"mcpServers": {
  "lancedb": {
    "command": "uv",
    "args": [
      "run",
      "python",
      "-m",
      "lancedb_mcp",
      "--db-path",
      "~/.lancedb"
    ]
  }
}

Add this configuration to your claude_desktop_config.json file.

Using the API

Table Management

Creating a New Table

To create a new vector table:

# POST /table
{
  "name": "my_table",      # Table name
  "dimension": 768         # Vector dimension
}

Vector Operations

Adding Vectors to a Table

To add vector data with associated text:

# POST /table/{table_name}/vector
{
  "vector": [0.1, 0.2, ...],  # Vector data
  "text": "associated text"    # Metadata
}

Searching for Similar Vectors

To search for similar vectors in a table:

# POST /table/{table_name}/search
{
  "vector": [0.1, 0.2, ...],  # Query vector
  "limit": 10                  # Number of results
}

Available Resources

The server exposes vector database tables as resources:

• table://{name}: A vector database table that stores embeddings and metadata
  • Configurable vector dimensions
  • Text metadata support
  • Efficient similarity search capabilities

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 "lancedb" '{"command":"uv","args":["run","python","-m","lancedb_mcp","--db-path","~/.lancedb"]}'

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": {
        "lancedb": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "python",
                "-m",
                "lancedb_mcp",
                "--db-path",
                "~/.lancedb"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "lancedb": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "python",
                "-m",
                "lancedb_mcp",
                "--db-path",
                "~/.lancedb"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect