db-kb-mcp-server

A static, read-only MCP server that exposes a database knowledge base (schema, relationships, workflows, and reasoning patterns) so Claude Code / Copilot can reason about a database it has no live connection to.

No DB connection required — the schema is assumed stable, and all content lives in kb/ as Markdown files.

Folder structure

kb/
  schema/         one file per table — columns, types, PK/FK, business meaning
  relationships/  FK-enforced and logical (non-enforced) relationships, grouped by subsystem
  workflows/      one file per customizable workflow — intents, tables touched, invariants
  patterns/       reusable reasoning recipes (e.g. reordering ordinal columns)
  glossary/       domain term definitions
server/
  src/            MCP server implementation (Node + TypeScript, @modelcontextprotocol/sdk)

Related MCP server: Oracle DB MCP

Tools exposed

Every doc is also exposed as an MCP resource (kb://<category>/<id>).

Running locally (stdio — simplest, per-user)

npm install
npm run build

By default, the server auto-loads kb/ from the repository root (resolved relative to server/dist/index.js, not the shell's current working directory). Override with KB_ROOT only when you want to point to another KB folder.

Then add to Claude Code:

claude mcp add db-kb -- node D:/Tasks/GTech_MCPServer/server/dist/index.js

Or set KB_ROOT to point at a KB folder elsewhere:

KB_ROOT=/path/to/kb node server/dist/index.js

Integration checklist (what users need on their machine)

Local stdio integration

Required on each user machine:

• Node.js 18+ (recommended current LTS)

• A local copy of:

  • server/dist/index.js (or full repo + build output)

  • kb/ folder (the knowledge base content)

Typical MCP config (example .mcp.json snippet):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "db-kb": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["D:\\Tasks\\GTech_MCPServer\\server\\dist\\index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Optional when kb/ lives elsewhere:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "db-kb": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["D:\\Tasks\\GTech_MCPServer\\server\\dist\\index.js"],
      "env": {
        "KB_ROOT": "D:\\MyKb"
      }
    }
  }
}

Hosted HTTP integration

Required on user machine:

• Only the MCP server URL (no local kb/ copy needed)

Client should use:

• transport: http

• URL: https://<host>:<port>/mcp (include /mcp)

Running as a hosted server (HTTP — pluggable via URL for everyone)

MCP_TRANSPORT=http PORT=8787 npm start

Deploy this anywhere (small VM, container, internal server). Then each teammate adds the URL once:

claude mcp add --transport http db-kb https://your-host:8787/mcp

No cloning, no file sync — everyone always gets the current KB content.

The HTTP server keeps one McpServer/transport pair per MCP session (keyed by the mcp-session-id the SDK assigns on initialize), not per HTTP request — sessions span many requests, so a naive "new server per request" implementation breaks the handshake (tools/call fails with "Server not initialized" on the very next request). Verified end-to-end with a manual initialize → notifications/initialized → tools/call sequence over curl.

Updating the knowledge base

1. Edit/add Markdown files under kb/.

2. If running the hosted HTTP variant, redeploy/restart the server — it loads kb/ once at startup (schema is assumed static; restart to pick up doc changes).

3. Use kb/schema/_TEMPLATE.md as the starting point for new tables.

Live read-only SQL access (Oracle SQLcl MCP Server)

Alongside the static KB server, this project bundles Oracle's official SQLcl (v26.2, downloaded to tools/sqlcl/) running in MCP mode — for verifying live schema/data against the actual Oracle instance. This is a separate, more sensitive server from db-kb: it needs real DB credentials and should not be shared as broadly as the KB server.

One-time setup (per machine, not committed to the repo)

1. Save a connection using SQLcl's own encrypted connection store. Run -nolog first, then type the connect command at the interactive prompt (or pipe it via stdin) — passing connect ... as command-line arguments gets misparsed as a script filename. Also pass -thin — on Windows, SQLcl defaults to OCI/thick mode and fails with no ocijdbc23 in java.library.path unless a full Oracle Instant Client is on the path; thin mode needs no native client at all:

   tools/sqlcl/bin/sql -thin -nolog
   SQL> connect -save mydb -savepwd myuser/mypassword@myhost:1521/myservice

   Credentials are stored locally under ~/.dbtools (SQLcl's own encrypted store) — never commit this directory or put credentials in .mcp.json.

2. Use a read-only DB account for myuser — grant only SELECT on the relevant schemas. This is the real enforcement boundary; SQLcl's own restrict levels are a second layer, not a substitute for DB-level permissions.

3. Verify the saved connection actually works: connect -name mydb then select 1 from dual;.

Already wired into .mcp.json

"oracle-sqlcl": { "command": "tools/sqlcl/bin/sql", "args": ["-thin", "-mcp"] }

MCP mode defaults to restrict level 4 (most restrictive) unless overridden with -R. It exposes 5 core tools: list-connections, connect, disconnect, run-sql, run-sqlcl. The connect tool only accepts a saved connection name (from step 1 above) — it never accepts raw credentials over MCP, so nothing sensitive passes through the AI session itself.

Auditing

Every session is logged: V$SESSION.MODULE records the MCP client, V$SESSION.ACTION records the calling LLM, and SQLcl creates a DBTOOLS$MCP_LOG table recording every interaction/SQL statement executed — useful for reviewing what was actually run against the live DB.

Division of responsibility with the KB server

• db-kb (this repo's server/) — static schema/workflow knowledge, safe to share broadly, no DB connection.

• oracle-sqlcl — live queries against the real instance, needs a read-only DB account, keep access scoped to people authorized to query production/test data.

Adding a new workflow doc

Copy the structure in kb/workflows/approval-chain-workflow.md:

• List common user intents mapped to concrete table/column changes.

• List invariants that must hold after any change.

• Link to relevant schema docs and reasoning patterns with [[slug]] (informal — for human navigation; the tools don't resolve these automatically yet).