pg-insight-mcp

A read-only PostgreSQL server for the Model Context Protocol. It lets any MCP client (Claude Desktop, VS Code, Cursor, custom agents) explore a database schema, run analytical queries and inspect execution plans, without any chance of changing data.

Features

• Schema discovery: schemas, tables, views, columns, constraints, indexes and incoming foreign keys

• Safe querying: every statement runs inside a READ ONLY transaction with a statement timeout

• Query guard: SQL is checked before it reaches the database. Only one statement is allowed, writes and DDL are rejected, EXPLAIN ANALYZE and dangerous functions such as pg_sleep, pg_read_file, dblink and set_config are blocked, and SELECT ... INTO is refused

• Row caps: results are limited to a configurable row count and flagged as truncated when more rows exist

• Plans without execution: explain_query returns the JSON plan plus a readable summary tree

• Schema allow-list: restrict the server to selected schemas; system schemas are never exposed

• Structured tool output, an MCP resource with the full schema overview, and a prompt for guided analysis

Related MCP server: PostgreSQL MCP Server

Tools

Resource: schema://overview. Prompt: analyse(question).

Quick start

Requires Python 3.11+ and Docker (for the sample database).

docker compose up -d
python -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -e ".[dev]"

On Windows the virtual environment's tools are in .venv\Scripts\ instead of .venv/bin/.

The sample shop database (200 customers, 12 products, 1,500 orders) is created and seeded automatically on port 5434.

Run the server over stdio:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://shop:shop@localhost:5434/shop pg-insight-mcp

PowerShell:

$env:DATABASE_URL = "postgresql://shop:shop@localhost:5434/shop"
.venv\Scripts\pg-insight-mcp

Or over HTTP:

pg-insight-mcp --transport streamable-http

Try it interactively with the MCP Inspector:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://shop:shop@localhost:5434/shop npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector .venv/bin/pg-insight-mcp

Click Connect, open the Tools tab and try:

Claude Desktop

Add the server to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pg-insight": {
      "command": "/path/to/pg-insight-mcp/.venv/bin/pg-insight-mcp",
      "env": {
        "DATABASE_URL": "postgresql://shop:shop@localhost:5434/shop"
      }
    }
  }
}

On Windows the file is %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json and the command is C:\\path\\to\\pg-insight-mcp\\.venv\\Scripts\\pg-insight-mcp.exe. Restart Claude Desktop after editing it.

Then ask questions such as "Which product category brought in the most revenue last quarter?".

Configuration

For production databases, also connect with a dedicated role that only has SELECT privileges. The server's checks are a second layer of defence, not a replacement for database permissions.

Project layout

src/pg_insight/
  config.py     settings from environment variables
  guard.py      SQL validation
  database.py   catalog queries and read-only execution
  server.py     MCP tools, resource and prompt
seed/           sample schema and data
tests/          guard unit tests and end-to-end MCP tests

Tests

docker compose up -d
pytest
ruff check src tests

The end-to-end tests connect an in-memory MCP client to the server and run against the sample database. They are skipped when the database is not reachable.

Stop the sample database with docker compose down.

License

MIT