Integrate OceanBase MCP Server with Cline

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) was introduced and open-sourced by Anthropic in November 2024. It lets large language models interact with external tools and data sources. With MCP, you don't have to copy model output and run it yourself—the model can instruct tools to perform actions directly.

The OceanBase MCP Server uses MCP to give LLMs access to OceanBase Database so they can run SQL. With an MCP-capable client you can quickly prototype applications. The server is open source on GitHub.

Cline is an open-source AI coding assistant that supports MCP.

This topic uses Cline to show how to build a backend application quickly with the OceanBase MCP Server.

Prerequisites

• You have deployed OceanBase Database and created a MySQL-compatible tenant. For details, see Create a tenant.

• You have Python 3.11 or later and pip installed. If your system Python is older, use Miniconda to create a Python 3.11+ environment.

• You have Git installed for your OS.

• You have the Python package manager uv installed. Verify with:

  pip install uv
  uv --version
  

• You have Cline installed:

  • With Visual Studio Code: Search for and install the Cline extension. After installation, open the settings (gear icon) and configure your LLM API for Cline.

    

  • Without an IDE: Follow the Cline installation guide. Download from Cline.

Step 1: Get database connection details

Obtain the database connection string from your OceanBase deployment team or administrator. For example:

obclient -h$host -P$port -u$user_name -p$password -D$database_name

Parameters:

• $host: The IP for connecting to OceanBase. Use an ODP address when connecting via OceanBase Database Proxy (ODP), or an OBServer IP for direct connection.

• $port: The connection port. ODP default is 2883; direct connection default is 2881. Both can be customized at deployment.

• $database_name: The database to use.

  Notice

  The user connecting to the tenant must have CREATE, INSERT, DROP, and SELECT privileges on that database. For more on privileges, see Privilege types in MySQL-compatible mode.

• $user_name: The tenant account. ODP: username@tenant#cluster or cluster:tenant:username. Direct: username@tenant.

• $password: The account password.

For more on connection strings, see Connect to an OceanBase tenant by using OBClient.

Step 2: Configure the OceanBase MCP Server

The following steps use Visual Studio Code.

Clone the OceanBase MCP Server repository

Download the source:

git clone https://github.com/oceanbase/mcp-oceanbase.git

Change into the project directory:

cd mcp-oceanbase

Install dependencies

From the mcp-oceanbase directory:

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install .

Create a VS Code project directory

Create a folder for your project and open it in Visual Studio Code. Cline will place generated files here (e.g. cline-generate).

Configure the OceanBase MCP Server in Cline

Click the Cline icon in the sidebar to open the Cline chat.

Add and configure MCP servers

1. Click the MCP Servers icon as shown below.

   

2. Configure the OceanBase MCP Server manually, following the numbered steps in the screenshot.

   

3. In the opened cline_mcp_settings.json file, add the configuration below and save. Replace /path/to/your/mcp-oceanbase/src/oceanbase_mcp_server with the absolute path to the oceanbase_mcp_server folder, and set OB_HOST, OB_PORT, OB_USER, OB_PASSWORD, and OB_DATABASE to your database values.

   Example:

   {
   "mcpServers": {
       "oceanbase": {
       "command": "uv",
       "args": [
           "--directory", 
           "/path/to/your/mcp-oceanbase/src/oceanbase_mcp_server",
           "run",
           "oceanbase_mcp_server"
       ],
       "env": {
           "OB_HOST": "***",
           "OB_PORT": "***",
           "OB_USER": "***",
           "OB_PASSWORD": "***",
           "OB_DATABASE": "***"
       }
       }
   }
   }
   

4. When configuration succeeds, the server shows as Available and lists MCP tools and resources.

   

5. Turn on the toggle so Cline can use the server, as shown below.

   

Test the MCP Server

Open a Cline chat and ask: How many tables are in the test database? Cline will show the SQL it will run. If it looks correct, click Run.

Cline will list the tables in the test database, confirming the connection to OceanBase.

Build a RESTful API with FastAPI

You can use FastAPI to quickly create a REST-style API.

1. Create the customer table.

   In the chat: Create a customer table with primary key ID and columns name, age, telephone, and location. Confirm the SQL and click Run.

2. Insert test data.

   Prompt: Insert 10 rows. Confirm the SQL and click Run.

3. Create the FastAPI project.

   Prompt: Create a FastAPI project that exposes a RESTful API for the customer table. Confirm and click Run.

   This generates three files. For a first run, accepting all generated content is recommended; you can refine it later.

4. Create a virtual environment and install dependencies.

   In the project directory:

   uv venv
   source .venv/bin/activate
   uv pip install -r requirements.txt
   

5. Start the FastAPI app.

   uvicorn main:app --reload
   

6. Query the API.

   From a terminal or any HTTP client:

   curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/customers
   

   The response will contain the customer records. The generated code implements full CRUD for the customer table (create, read, update, delete).

   from fastapi import FastAPI, Depends, HTTPException
   from sqlalchemy.orm import Session
   from models import Customer
   from database import SessionLocal, engine
   from pydantic import BaseModel
   
   app = FastAPI()
   
   # Database dependency
   def get_db():
       db = SessionLocal()
       try:
           yield db
       finally:
           db.close()
   
   # Request model
   class CustomerCreate(BaseModel):
       name: str
       age: int
       telephone: str
       location: str
   
   # Response model
   class CustomerResponse(CustomerCreate):
       id: int
   
       class Config:
           from_attributes = True
   
   @app.post("/customers/")
   def create_customer(customer: CustomerCreate, db: Session = Depends(get_db)):
       db_customer = Customer(**customer.model_dump())
       db.add(db_customer)
       db.commit()
       db.refresh(db_customer)
       return db_customer
   
   @app.get("/customers/{customer_id}")
   def read_customer(customer_id: int, db: Session = Depends(get_db)):
       customer = db.query(Customer).filter(Customer.id == customer_id).first()
       if customer is None:
           raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Customer not found")
       return customer
   
   @app.get("/customers/")
   def read_customers(skip: int = 0, limit: int = 10, db: Session = Depends(get_db)):
       return db.query(Customer).offset(skip).limit(limit).all()
   
   @app.put("/customers/{customer_id}")
   def update_customer(customer_id: int, customer: CustomerCreate, db: Session = Depends(get_db)):
       db_customer = db.query(Customer).filter(Customer.id == customer_id).first()
       if db_customer is None:
           raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Customer not found")
       for field, value in customer.model_dump().items():
           setattr(db_customer, field, value)
       db.commit()
       db.refresh(db_customer)
       return db_customer
   
   @app.delete("/customers/{customer_id}")
   def delete_customer(customer_id: int, db: Session = Depends(get_db)):
       customer = db.query(Customer).filter(Customer.id == customer_id).first()
       if customer is None:
           raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Customer not found")
       db.delete(customer)
       db.commit()
       return {"message": "Customer deleted successfully"}