Provides access to dbt project metadata through manifest.json and catalog.json artifacts, enabling search of models, sources, and tests, inspection of node attributes, exploration of model dependencies, and tracing of column-level lineage within dbt projects.
Used for progress visualization when processing potentially large dbt manifests, particularly during column-level lineage creation which can take hours for larger projects.
dbt-docs-mcp
Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for interacting with dbt project metadata, including dbt Docs artifacts (manifest.json
, catalog.json
). This server exposes dbt graph information and allows querying node details, model/column lineage, and related metadata.
Key Functionality
This server provides tools to:
Search dbt Nodes:
Find nodes (models, sources, tests, etc.) by name (
search_dbt_node_names
).Locate nodes based on column names (
search_dbt_column_names
).Search within the compiled SQL code of nodes (
search_dbt_sql_code
).
Inspect Nodes:
Retrieve detailed attributes for any given node unique ID (
get_dbt_node_attributes
).
Explore Lineage:
Find direct upstream dependencies (predecessors) of a node (
get_dbt_predecessors
).Find direct downstream dependents (successors) of a node (
get_dbt_successors
).
Column-Level Lineage:
Trace all upstream sources for a specific column in a model (
get_column_ancestors
).Trace all downstream dependents of a specific column in a model (
get_column_descendants
).
Suggested extensions:
Tool that allows executing SQL queries.
Tool that retrieves table/view/column metadata directly from the database.
Tool to search knowledge-base.
Getting Started
Prerequisites: Ensure you have Python installed and uv
Clone the repo:
git clone <repository-url> cd dbt-docs-mcpOptional: parse dbt manifest for column-level lineage:
Setup the required Python environment, e.g.:
uv syncUse the provided script
scripts/create_manifest_cl.py
and simply provide the path to your dbt manifest, dbt catalog and the desired output paths for your schema and column lineage file:
python scripts/create_manifest_cl.py --manifest-path PATH_TO_YOUR_MANIFEST_FILE --catalog-path PATH_TO_YOUR_CATALOG_FILE --schema-mapping-path DESIRED_OUTPUT_PATH_FOR_SCHEMA_MAPPING --manifest-cl-path DESIRED_OUTPUT_PATH_FOR_MANIFEST_CLDepending on your dbt project size, creating column-lineage can take a while (hours)
Run the Server:
If your desired MCP client (Claude desktop, Cursor, etc.) supports mcp.json it would like as below:
{ "mcpServers": { "DBT Docs MCP": { "command": "uv", "args": [ "run", "--with", "networkx,mcp[cli],rapidfuzz,dbt-core,python-decouple,sqlglot,tqdm", "mcp", "run", "/Users/mattijs/repos/dbt-docs-mcp/src/mcp_server.py" ], "env": { "MANIFEST_PATH": "/Users/mattijs/repos/dbt-docs-mcp/inputs/manifest.json", "SCHEMA_MAPPING_PATH": "/Users/mattijs/repos/dbt-docs-mcp/outputs/schema_mapping.json", "MANIFEST_CL_PATH": "/Users/mattijs/repos/dbt-docs-mcp/outputs/manifest_column_lineage.json" } } } }
This server cannot be installed
hybrid server
The server is able to function both locally and remotely, depending on the configuration or use case.
dbt-docs-mcp
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