ibmi

The IBM i MCP Server exposes YAML-defined SQL tools that let AI agents execute queries against IBM i Db2 for i. This server acts as a bridge between AI clients and your IBM i system, enabling secure SQL tool execution, result streaming, and tool discovery via MCP. Out of the box, you can start with the pre-configured Performance tooling to monitor system status, memory, and active jobs, and you can swap in other tool YAMLs from the tools/ directory to tailor capabilities to your environment. To use it, start the server with the recommended npx command, then query the server health endpoint and list available tools to verify connectivity and tooling. You can also run the server in Docker for containerized deployments.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js 18+ installed on the machine running the MCP server
• Mapepire running on IBM i (port 8076) or an accessible Db2i endpoint
• Git and npm/yarn (npm is sufficient for npx usage)

Installation steps:

1. Clone the repository (optional if using a pre-built npm package): git clone https://github.com/IBM/ibmi-mcp-server.git cd ibmi-mcp-server

2. Install dependencies (recommended if you cloned the repo): npm install

3. Start the server using the MCP command (uses pre-configured performance tools by default): npx -y @ibm/ibmi-mcp-server@latest --transport http --tools ./tools/performance/performance.yaml

4. (Optional) Run via Docker: docker run --rm --name ibmi-mcp-server
   -v /path/to/tools/:/tools
   -v /path/to/.env/:/.env
   -e MCP_SERVER_CONFIG=/.env
   -p 3010:3010 ghcr.io/ibm/ibmi-mcp-server:latest

Prereqs after install:

• Ensure your .env (or equivalent env vars) contains the IBM i connection details (DB2i_HOST, DB2i_USER, DB2i_PASS, DB2i_PORT) and that Mapepire is accessible.

Tips and notes:

• The server uses YAML tool definitions found under tools/. You can create or customize tool YAMLs to fit your IBM i environment.
• For security, avoid storing DB credentials in plain text in production; use environment variables or a secrets manager.
• If using Docker, map your local tools directory and .env file into the container and set MCP_SERVER_CONFIG to the env file path inside the container.
• The health endpoint is at http://localhost:3010/healthz; you can list tools via a tools/list call to the MCP API.
• Ensure the IBM i system allows incoming connections from the MCP server host and that port 8076 (or your configured port) is accessible.
• If you need additional tool sets, refer to the Tools Guide and the tools/ directory contents.