quickbase -by-cdata

This MCP server provides a read-only interface to your Quickbase data by wrapping the CData JDBC Driver for Quickbase and exposing it via the MCP protocol. It lets LLMs query live Quickbase information without requiring you to write SQL or expose databases directly. After starting the server, configure Claude Desktop (or another MCP client) to point at the MCP server entry, enabling tools that can list available tables, list columns for a table, and run SELECT queries through a standard JSON-RPC interface. The built-in tools include: {servername}_get_tables to fetch available tables, {servername}_get_columns to fetch columns for a specific table, and {servername}_run_query to execute a SQL SELECT statement. You can interact with these tools by asking natural language questions like “What are the accounts in Quickbase?” or “Show me open tickets in the Support project” and the system will translate them into MCP tool calls under the hood.

Prerequisites:

• Java installed on the host machine (required to run the MCP server).
• Maven installed to build the MCP server JAR (the project is built with Maven).
• CData JDBC Driver for Quickbase installed and licensed on the host machine, as described in the setup guide.

Installation steps:

1. Clone the repository and navigate into it: git clone https://github.com/cdatasoftware/quickbase-mcp-server-by-cdata.git cd quickbase-mcp-server-by-cdata

2. Build the server JAR with dependencies: mvn clean install This creates the JAR file named CDataMCP-jar-with-dependencies.jar (found in the target directory).

3. Install the CData JDBC Driver for Quickbase and license it according to the driver instructions:

   • Download from: https://www.cdata.com/drivers/quickbase/download/jdbc
   • After install, run the license command from the Driver’s lib directory, e.g.: java -jar cdata.jdbc.quickbase.jar --license
   • Provide your name, email, and license (or TRIAL) as prompted.

4. Prepare your .prp configuration file for the JDBC connection (example contents provided in the README): Prefix=quickbase ServerName=CDataQuickbase ServerVersion=1.0 DriverPath=/path/to/cdata.jdbc.quickbase.jar DriverClass=cdata.jdbc.quickbase.QuickbaseDriver JdbcUrl=jdbc:quickbase:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH; Tables=

5. Run the MCP server using the prepared .prp file: java -jar /path/to/CDataMCP-jar-with-dependencies.jar /path/to/quickbase.prp

Notes:

• The server uses stdio, so it must be run on the same machine as your MCP client.
• The example assumes a single configured Quickbase data source; adapt paths to your environment as needed.

Tips and troubleshooting:

• Ensure the Java process running the MCP server has access to the CData JDBC Driver JAR as configured in the quickbase.prp file.
• If Claude Desktop (or your MCP client) does not detect the server, fully quit and restart the client after starting the MCP server.
• When configuring the Claude Desktop JSON config, use the same server name as defined in mcpServers and ensure the path to the Java executable and JAR is correct.
• If you encounter connection issues, verify the JDBC connection string created by the CData Connection String utility and copy it into quickbase.prp as JdbcUrl.
• Since this setup is read-only by default, write/update/delete capabilities depend on the underlying driver and the MCP server configuration; this read-only variant is intended for querying live Quickbase data.