MySQL Schema Explorer MCP server for AI agents

The MySQL Schema Explorer MCP Server provides compressed schema information for MySQL databases, helping you work with large database schemas that might not fit within context size limits. It extracts and formats table information, relationships, and column definitions to assist with database exploration and SQL generation.

Installation Options

Using Docker (Recommended)

The simplest way to use the MySQL Schema Explorer MCP is via Docker:

Configure your MCP server by creating an mcp.json file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mysql-schema-explorer-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "--pull", "always", "--network=host",
        "-e", "DB_HOST=127.0.0.1",
        "-e", "DB_PORT=3306",
        "-e", "DB_USER=root",
        "-e", "DB_PASSWORD=your_password",
        "ghcr.io/shibayu36/mysql-schema-explorer-mcp:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Using Claude Code

If you're using Claude Code, you can add the MCP server with:

claude mcp add mysql-schema-explorer-mcp -- docker run -i --rm --pull always --network=host \
  -e DB_HOST=127.0.0.1 \
  -e DB_USER=root \
  -e DB_PASSWORD=your_password \
  -e DB_PORT=3306 \
  ghcr.io/shibayu36/mysql-schema-explorer-mcp:latest

Using Binary Installation

If you prefer not to use Docker, you can install the binary directly:

Install using Go:

go install github.com/shibayu36/mysql-schema-explorer-mcp@latest

Configure mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mysql-schema-explorer-mcp": {
      "command": "/path/to/mysql-schema-explorer-mcp",
      "env": {
        "DB_HOST": "127.0.0.1",
        "DB_PORT": "3306",
        "DB_USER": "root",
        "DB_PASSWORD": "your_password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Using the MCP Server

Available Tools

The MCP server provides two main functions:

List Tables Tool

The list_tables tool provides summary information about all tables in a database, including:

Table names
Table comments
Primary key information
Unique key information
Foreign key relationships

Parameters:

dbName: Database name (optional if DB_NAME environment variable is set)

Describe Tables Tool

The describe_tables tool provides detailed information about specific tables, including:

Column definitions
Key constraints
Indexes
And more

Parameters:

dbName: Database name (optional if DB_NAME environment variable is set)
tableNames: Array of table names to describe

Working with a Specific Database

To avoid specifying the database name in each query, you can set the DB_NAME environment variable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mysql-schema-explorer-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "--network=host",
        "-e", "DB_HOST=127.0.0.1",
        "-e", "DB_PORT=3306",
        "-e", "DB_USER=root",
        "-e", "DB_PASSWORD=your_password",
        "-e", "DB_NAME=ecshop",
        "ghcr.io/shibayu36/mysql-schema-explorer-mcp:latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Usage Example

You can use this MCP server with an AI agent to perform tasks like:

Exploring database structure
Generating SQL queries based on schema information
Finding relationships between tables

For example, you could ask the agent to "List the names of the 3 most recently ordered products by the user shibayu36" after it has access to your database schema through this MCP server.

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 "mysql-schema-explorer-mcp" '{"command":"/path/to/mysql-schema-explorer-mcp","env":{"DB_HOST":"127.0.0.1","DB_PORT":"3306","DB_USER":"root","DB_PASSWORD":"root"}}'

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": {
        "mysql-schema-explorer-mcp": {
            "command": "/path/to/mysql-schema-explorer-mcp",
            "env": {
                "DB_HOST": "127.0.0.1",
                "DB_PORT": "3306",
                "DB_USER": "root",
                "DB_PASSWORD": "root"
            }
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "mysql-schema-explorer-mcp": {
            "command": "/path/to/mysql-schema-explorer-mcp",
            "env": {
                "DB_HOST": "127.0.0.1",
                "DB_PORT": "3306",
                "DB_USER": "root",
                "DB_PASSWORD": "root"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect