dbeaver-readonly-mcp

An MCP server that gives an MCP client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop and the like) read-only access to the databases you already have configured in DBeaver, without copying credentials anywhere else.

How it works

• Reads host, port, user and password from DBeaver's configuration at startup.

• Only exposes the connections listed in allowlist.json, by their DBeaver name.

• Every query runs with default_transaction_read_only=on, inside BEGIN READ ONLY and ending in ROLLBACK, with a 15s timeout and a row limit.

• Accepts a single statement per call (extended protocol), so COMMIT; DROP ... is rejected.

• Uses your own database user: it sees exactly what you see in DBeaver.

Tools: list_connections, query, list_tables (with owner and whether you have SELECT) and describe_table.

PostgreSQL only for now. Other databases need a new driver.

Related MCP server: Postgres MCP Server

Requirements

• Node 20+.

• DBeaver with the password saved on the connection ("Save password"). Passwords kept in Secure Storage (the OS keychain) are not read.

DBeaver's configuration is looked up in:

For another workspace or project, set DBEAVER_CONFIG_DIR. To keep the allowlist elsewhere, set DBEAVER_MCP_ALLOWLIST.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/HenriqueRicardoFigueira/dbeaver-readonly-mcp.git ~/.claude/mcp/dbeaver-readonly
cd ~/.claude/mcp/dbeaver-readonly
npm install
cp allowlist.example.json allowlist.json
claude mcp add --scope user dbeaver-readonly -- "$(which node)" ~/.claude/mcp/dbeaver-readonly/index.js

If your shell's default node is older than 20, pass the path to a Node 20+ binary to claude mcp add.

allowlist.json

{
  "connections": {
    "MY-LOCAL-POSTGRES": {},
    "MY-STAGING-POSTGRES": { "database": "my_db", "ssl": true },
    "MY-RDS-BEHIND-CUSTOM-DNS": {
      "caFile": "certs/rds-global-bundle.pem",
      "tlsServerName": "my-instance.abc123xyz.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com"
    }
  }
}

The key is the connection name in DBeaver. Every field is optional:

• database: overrides the connection's database, useful when it points to postgres and you work in another one.

• ssl: true for TLS verified against the system CAs. When absent, connects without TLS.

• caFile: PEM file with the CA that signs the server certificate, relative to this folder. Enables TLS.

• tlsServerName: name to check in the certificate when the connection host is an alias (CNAME) the certificate doesn't cover. Enables TLS.

There is no option to turn certificate verification off: if it fails, point caFile to the right CA.

Amazon RDS

RDS certificates are signed by AWS's own CAs, which are not in the system trust store. npm run fetch-rds-ca downloads the official global bundle to certs/rds-global-bundle.pem.

If you connect through your own DNS name pointing to the instance, the certificate only covers the *.rds.amazonaws.com endpoint. Put that endpoint in tlsServerName. To find it:

dig +short my-db.my-company.com CNAME

Caution

Be careful when allowing production databases: read-only mode prevents writes, but the returned data goes into the model's context.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.