metabase-mcp

Query your Metabase with AI agents. No API key. No admin begging. Just vibes and a cookie.

The problem

The official Metabase MCP wants an API key or your username/password. Cool in theory. Not so cool if your company won't give you one.

But you can log into Metabase in a browser. Which means you have a session cookie. Which means you have everything you need.

That's this.

Wait, should you even use this?

Honest answer: if you have an API key or username/password, just use the official Metabase MCP. It's proper, supported, and won't expire on you mid-conversation. Newer versions of Metabase also support Google login natively via the official MCP.

This project is for the rest of us: the people whose company guards API keys like they're nuclear launch codes and treats every Metabase upgrade request like a 6-month procurement process.

You'll love this if:

• Your org controls Metabase and you don't have credentials beyond your browser login
• Your Metabase version doesn't support the official MCP's Google login yet
• You'd rather fish a cookie out of DevTools than write another Jira ticket
• You want to query data with AI and get on with your life

You should know:

What it can do

Prerequisites

• Go 1.25.5+
• A Metabase instance you can log into

Install

go install github.com/Naveen-chava/metabase-mcp@latest

This puts the binary in ~/go/bin/. Make sure that's in your $PATH:

export PATH="$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin"

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/Naveen-chava/metabase-mcp
cd metabase-mcp
go install .

Getting your session cookie

This is the one slightly sneaky step.

1. Open Metabase in your browser and log in
2. Open DevTools → Application → Cookies → select your Metabase domain
3. Find metabase.SESSION and copy its value

That's your cookie. Treat it like a password; it grants the same access as your login session.

If the MCP starts throwing 401s, your session expired. Grab a fresh cookie and you're back.

Configuration

Inline (quick start):

METABASE_URL=https://metabase.company.com \
METABASE_SESSION=your-cookie \
./metabase-mcp

Via file (recommended, no restart when your cookie expires):

echo "your-cookie" > ~/.metabase-session

METABASE_URL=https://metabase.company.com \
METABASE_SESSION_FILE=~/.metabase-session \
./metabase-mcp

To rotate a stale cookie, just overwrite the file. No restart needed; the next request picks it up automatically.

The server expands ~ and $HOME in the session file path, so ~/.metabase-session works everywhere.

Claude Desktop

Add this to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "metabase": {
      "command": "metabase-mcp",
      "env": {
        "METABASE_URL": "https://metabase.company.com",
        "METABASE_SESSION_FILE": "~/.metabase-session"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. Done.

Claude Code

claude mcp add metabase metabase-mcp -s user -e METABASE_URL=https://metabase.company.com -e METABASE_SESSION_FILE=~/.metabase-session

Run as a single line. Backslash continuations can introduce invisible characters when copied from some terminals or browsers.

Cursor

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global) or .cursor/mcp.json (project-level):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "metabase": {
      "command": "metabase-mcp",
      "env": {
        "METABASE_URL": "https://metabase.company.com",
        "METABASE_SESSION_FILE": "~/.metabase-session"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Cursor and verify the server is connected under Settings → MCP.

Example prompts

• "What databases are connected to Metabase?"
• "Show me all tables in the Analytics DB"
• "What's in my personal collection?"
• "Run the 'Daily Active Users' question"
• "Search for anything related to revenue"
• "Run this SQL on the Analytics DB: SELECT count(*) FROM orders WHERE created_at > now() - interval 7 day"
• "Query the orders collection in MongoDB and group revenue by category"
• "Create a saved question that shows top customers by spend"

Project structure

metabase-mcp/
├── main.go                    # Startup, env vars, wires everything together
└── internal/
    ├── metabase/              # Metabase API client
    │   ├── client.go          # HTTP client with cookie auth
    │   ├── types.go           # API types
    │   ├── databases.go
    │   ├── collections.go
    │   ├── cards.go
    │   ├── dashboards.go
    │   ├── tables.go
    │   ├── search.go
    │   ├── query.go
    │   └── tests/             # HTTP-level tests (package metabase_test)
    └── tools/                 # MCP tool handlers
        ├── client.go          # MetabaseClient interface
        ├── register.go        # One place to add/remove tools
        ├── helpers.go         # Shared utilities
        ├── databases.go
        ├── collections.go
        ├── cards.go
        ├── dashboards.go
        ├── tables.go
        ├── search.go
        ├── query.go
        └── tests/             # Handler tests with mock client (package tools_test)

Running tests

go test ./...