Chinook MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server, written in Python, that lets AI assistants such as Cursor and Claude Desktop explore and query a SQLite database in plain English. The database is read-only, so the assistant can't change your data.

It ships with the Chinook sample database, a digital music store with artists, albums, tracks, customers, employees and invoices. Point it at any other SQLite file with one environment variable.

Ask things like:

• "Which five artists earned the most revenue, and in which countries do their customers live?"

• "Which sales agent had the highest sales in 2013?"

• "Show me the schema and explain how invoices link to tracks."

The assistant reads the schema, writes the SQL, runs it through this server and explains the result.

Tools

The chinook://schema resource holds the full CREATE statements. All tools return structured JSON output and are marked read-only for MCP clients.

Related MCP server: MCP Database Bridge

How it stays read-only

Safety is enforced by SQLite itself, not by matching keywords in the SQL:

• The file is opened in read-only mode (mode=ro) with PRAGMA query_only.

• Every query runs under a SQLite authorizer that allows reads only. INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, DDL, PRAGMA and ATTACH are refused, even when hidden inside a WITH clause.

• Only one statement is allowed per call.

• Results are capped by a row limit, and a time limit (5 seconds by default) stops runaway queries.

• Table names passed to describe_table and sample_rows are checked against the real table list.

Setup

Requires Python 3.10 or newer.

git clone https://github.com/arslanmunawar0/chinook-mcp-server.git
cd chinook-mcp-server
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

Connect it to an assistant

Use the absolute path to the chinook-mcp-server command inside your virtual environment.

Cursor: add this to .cursor/mcp.json in your project, or to ~/.cursor/mcp.json to use it everywhere.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chinook": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/chinook-mcp-server/.venv/bin/chinook-mcp-server"
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop: add the same mcpServers block to claude_desktop_config.json and restart the app.

MCP Inspector: to try the tools in a browser:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector .venv/bin/chinook-mcp-server

Using your own database

Set CHINOOK_DB_PATH to any SQLite file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-data": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/chinook-mcp-server/.venv/bin/chinook-mcp-server",
      "env": { "CHINOOK_DB_PATH": "/absolute/path/to/your.db" }
    }
  }
}

Project layout

src/chinook_mcp/database.py   read-only SQLite access (authorizer, limits, schema)
src/chinook_mcp/server.py     MCP tools and resource
tests/                        database tests, plus end-to-end tests over the MCP protocol and stdio
chinook.db                    Chinook sample database, v1.4.5

Built with the official MCP Python SDK (v2).

Credits and licence

chinook.db is the Chinook Database by Luis Rocha, file Chinook_Sqlite.sqlite from release v1.4.5. It is used under the MIT licence, included unchanged in LICENSE-CHINOOK.md.

The server code is MIT-licensed; see LICENSE.