---
title: Resources
description: Overview of the resources available when using the Actian MCP Server with Actian Zen.
---

# Resources

The Actian MCP Server for Actian Zen provides a dedicated resource for discovering the database schema. This resource allows the server to share the database structure directly with an LLM, enabling more accurate query generation.

## Available Resources

| Resource URI | Description |
|--------------|-------------|
| [`resource://database/schema`](#resourcedatabaseschema) | Returns the complete database schema summary with tables, columns, types, keys, indexes, and row counts. |



## resource://database/schema

The `resource://database/schema` URI returns the complete database schema as JSON, including tables, columns, types, nullability, primary keys, foreign keys, indexes, and row counts. This data is injected into the LLM system prompt, giving the model full awareness of the database structure, including nullability, primary and foreign keys, and indexes.

!!! info "Schema introspection method"
    The schema is built using SQLAlchemy introspection over the Zen ODBC connection, with Zen-specific type mapping applied to each column.

### Parameters

This resource does not require any input parameters.

### Output Schema

**On Success**

```json
{
  "database": "<database_name>",
  "tables": {
    "<table_name>": {
      "columns": [
        {
          "name": "<column_name>",
          "type": "<sqlalchemy_type>",
          "zen_type": "<zen_native_type>",
          "nullable": true,
          "autoincrement": false,
          "length": 100
        }
      ],
      "primary_key": ["<pk_column>"],
      "foreign_keys": [
        {
          "columns": ["<fk_column>"],
          "references_table": "<referenced_table>",
          "references_columns": ["<referenced_column>"]
        }
      ],
      "indexes": [
        {
          "name": "<index_name>",
          "columns": ["<indexed_column>"],
          "unique": false
        }
      ],
      "row_count": 42
    }
  },
  "summary": {
    "total_tables": 7,
    "total_columns": 35,
    "timestamp": "2026-03-27T10:00:00.000000"
  }
}
```

**On Error**

```json
{
  "error": "<error_message>"
}
```

### Example

**Request**

```text
resource://database/schema
```

**Response**

```json
{
  "database": "demodata",
  "tables": {
    "Person": {
      "columns": [
        {"name": "ID", "type": "BIGINT", "zen_type": "BIGIDENTITY", "nullable": false, "autoincrement": true},
        {"name": "First_Name", "type": "VARCHAR(30)", "zen_type": "VARCHAR", "nullable": true, "autoincrement": false, "length": 30},
        {"name": "Last_Name", "type": "VARCHAR(30)", "zen_type": "VARCHAR", "nullable": true, "autoincrement": false, "length": 30}
      ],
      "primary_key": ["ID"],
      "foreign_keys": [],
      "indexes": [{"name": "Person_PK", "columns": ["ID"], "unique": true}],
      "row_count": 14
    },
    "Department": {
      "columns": [
        {"name": "ID", "type": "BIGINT", "zen_type": "BIGIDENTITY", "nullable": false, "autoincrement": true},
        {"name": "Name", "type": "VARCHAR(30)", "zen_type": "VARCHAR", "nullable": true, "autoincrement": false, "length": 30}
      ],
      "primary_key": ["ID"],
      "foreign_keys": [],
      "indexes": [{"name": "Department_PK", "columns": ["ID"], "unique": true}],
      "row_count": 5
    }
  },
  "summary": {
    "total_tables": 2,
    "total_columns": 5,
    "timestamp": "2026-03-27T10:00:00.000000"
  }
}
```



## Next Steps

<div class="grid cards" markdown>

- :material-tools: **[Tools](../tools/index.md)**  
  Explore the available MCP tools for Actian Zen database operations.

- :material-chat-processing: **[Prompts](../prompts/index.md)**  
  Use pre-built prompt templates for common Zen workflows.

</div>