Skip to content

Tools

The Actian MCP Server for the Actian Analytics Engine provides four built-in tools for database discovery and read-only query execution.

Available Tools

Use the following tools to interact with the database:

Tool Description
execute_query Runs a read-only SQL query against the connected database.
list_tables Lists all available user tables and views.
describe_table Returns column definitions and comments for a specific table.
list_functions Lists available user-defined functions and procedures.

execute_query

Use this tool to run read-only SQL queries. The server returns the result set as a structured JSON object.

Parameters

Field Type Required Description
query string Read-only SQL query to execute.

Output Schema

On Success

{
  "success": true,
  "columns": ["<result_columns>"],
  "rows": [["<result_rows>"]],
  "row_count": "<num_rows>",
  "truncated": true,
  "warning": "Results were truncated to <max_rows> rows."
}

Note

The truncated and warning fields appear only when the number of result rows exceeds the max_rows value set in the server configuration.

On Error

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "<error_message>"
}

Example

Request

Show me all the rows in the customers table
{
  "query": "SELECT * FROM customers"
}

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "columns": ["customer_id", "customer_name"],
  "rows": [
    [101, "Acme Retail"],
    [102, "Northwind Stores"]
  ],
  "row_count": 2
}

list_tables

Returns all user tables and views available in the connected database as structured JSON.

Parameters

This tool takes no input parameters.

Output Schema

On Success

{
  "success": true,
  "columns": ["table_name"],
  "rows": [["<table_name>"]],
  "row_count": "<num_rows>"
}

On Error

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "<error_message>"
}

Example

Request

Show me all the tables in my database

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "columns": ["table_name"],
  "rows": [
    ["customers"],
    ["orders"]
  ],
  "row_count": 2
}

describe_table

Returns schema details for a specific table, including column names, data types, lengths, scales, and comments.

Parameters

Field Type Required Description
table_name string Name of the table to describe.

Output Schema

On Success

{
  "success": true,
  "columns": [
    "column_name",
    "column_datatype",
    "column_length",
    "column_scale",
    "column_comment"
  ],
  "rows": [
    ["<column_name>", "<column_datatype>", "<column_length>", "<column_scale>", "<column_comment>"]
  ],
  "row_count": "<num_rows>"
}

On Error

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "<error_message>"
}

Example

Request

Show me schema information about the customers table
{
  "table_name": "customers"
}

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "columns": [
    "column_name",
    "column_datatype",
    "column_length",
    "column_scale",
    "column_comment"
  ],
  "rows": [
    ["customer_id", "integer", "4", "0", "Primary key"],
    ["customer_name", "varchar", "100", "0", "Customer display name"]
  ],
  "row_count": 2
}

Warning

If the authenticated database user lacks access to a table, the error response includes a permission message. For example: "error": "No permission to access table 'ii_tables'".

list_functions

Returns user-defined functions and procedures, including their stored DDL definitions, as structured JSON.

Parameters

This tool takes no input parameters.

Output Schema

On Success

{
  "success": true,
  "columns": ["function_name", "function_ddl"],
  "rows": [["<function_name>", "<function_ddl>"]],
  "row_count": "<num_rows>"
}

On Error

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "<error_message>"
}

Example

Request

Show me all the functions in my database

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "columns": ["function_name", "function_ddl"],
  "rows": [
    ["calculate_discount", "CREATE FUNCTION calculate_discount(...) ..."],
    ["refresh_sales_summary", "CREATE PROCEDURE refresh_sales_summary() ..."]
  ],
  "row_count": 2
}

Next Steps

  • Resources
    Explore the resource types available through the server.

  • Prompts
    Use the built-in prompt templates for common workflows.