grafeo-mcp

MCP server that exposes GrafeoDB - an embedded graph database - to AI agents via the Model Context Protocol.

One install, zero infrastructure. The MCP server is the database.

Features

• 23 tools - graph CRUD, GQL queries, batch import, full-text search, vector search, MMR, hybrid retrieval, PageRank, Dijkstra, Louvain and more
• 3 resources - graph://schema, graph://stats, graph://nodes/{id}
• 4 workflow prompts - guide agents through exploration, knowledge extraction, graph analysis and similarity search
• GQL with Cypher-style syntax - CREATE, MERGE and OPTIONAL MATCH run as written, with query parameters and write counters
• Schema-first - agents discover the graph structure before querying
• Token-aware - all tools have limit params and cut large results down to valid JSON
• Agent-friendly errors - every failure is one Error: <tool>: ... message with a hint, flagged isError over MCP
• Embedded - no separate database server to manage

Quickstart

# Install
uv tool install grafeo-mcp

# Or run it without installing
uvx grafeo-mcp

grafeo-mcp needs grafeo 0.5.44 or later (below 0.7); see Storage and upgrading.

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafeo": {
      "command": "grafeo-mcp",
      "env": {
        "GRAFEO_DB_PATH": "/path/to/your/graph.grafeo"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Add to .mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grafeo": {
      "command": "grafeo-mcp",
      "env": {
        "GRAFEO_DB_PATH": "./graph.grafeo"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code / Copilot

Add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "grafeo": {
      "command": "grafeo-mcp",
      "env": {
        "GRAFEO_DB_PATH": "${workspaceFolder}/graph.grafeo"
      }
    }
  }
}

HTTP transport

For remote or multi-client setups:

grafeo-mcp streamable-http

Environment Variables

Read-only mode

With GRAFEO_READ_ONLY=1 the mutation tools stay visible but return an error, and execute_gql refuses queries with INSERT, CREATE, MERGE, SET, REMOVE, DELETE, DROP or ALTER and runs the rest in a transaction that is always rolled back. When GRAFEO_DB_PATH names an existing .grafeo file, the server also opens it with grafeo's read-only mode: the engine itself rejects writes, several read-only servers can share the file, and grafeo 0.6 reads a 0.5.x file without migrating it.

Storage and upgrading

• Use a single-file `.grafeo` path. Any other path (such as graph.db) creates a WAL-directory database. grafeo 0.5.x reopens a directory database without its vector, text and property indexes, so vector_search and search_text fail after a restart until the index is created again; the server logs a warning for such paths. The single file is grafeo's recommended format, and WAL-directory storage is deprecated as of grafeo 0.6.
• One writer at a time. A database file can be open for writing by one process. Run one grafeo-mcp server per file, or use read-only mode for extra readers.
• Upgrading to grafeo 0.6. grafeo 0.6.0 writes a new file format. The first read-write open of a 0.5.x .grafeo file migrates it in place and keeps the old file next to it as graph.grafeo.pre-0.6 (and its WAL as graph.grafeo.pre-0.6.wal). Before the first start on 0.6, stop every 0.5.x process that uses the file and make sure there is free disk space for a copy of the database. After the migration grafeo 0.5.x can no longer open the file; to go back, see Upgrading from 0.5. A read-only server does not migrate the file. grafeo 0.7 will not read 0.5.x files, so open each database read-write with 0.6 once before moving on.
• Pinning. Until grafeo 1.0 a minor release may change the file format or the API, so grafeo-mcp pins the grafeo minor versions it is tested with (currently grafeo>=0.5.44,<0.7). A weekly CI job runs the test suite against the newest grafeo in that range, pre-releases included.

Tools

Query

Graph CRUD & Traversal

Batch Import

Full-Text Search

Vector Search

Graph Algorithms

Resources

Prompts

Which tool when?

Batch reference syntax

The batch_import tool lets edges reference nodes created in the same batch using @N notation, where N is the zero-based index into the nodes array:

batch_import(
    nodes=[
        {"labels": ["Person"], "properties": {"name": "Alice"}},  # @0
        {"labels": ["Person"], "properties": {"name": "Bob"}},    # @1
    ],
    edges=[
        {"source_ref": "@0", "target_ref": "@1", "edge_type": "KNOWS"},
    ],
)

You can also mix batch references with existing node IDs: {"source_ref": "@0", "target_ref": 42, ...}.

A batch is all or nothing: it is checked completely before anything is written (labels, edge types, @N references, and that referenced node IDs exist), and if the engine rejects a node or edge partway (for example a UNIQUE constraint), everything the call created is removed again.

Queries

execute_gql passes the query text to grafeo's GQL engine unchanged. The engine also accepts common Cypher syntax such as CREATE, MERGE, OPTIONAL MATCH and DETACH DELETE, so agents trained on Cypher work out of the box.

• One statement per call. Text with several statements separated by ; is refused before it runs (a trailing ; is fine). Chain clauses instead (INSERT ... INSERT ..., MATCH ... INSERT ...) or send separate calls.
• Parameters. Pass values in params and reference them as $name, e.g. query MERGE (p:Person {name: $name}) SET p += $props RETURN id(p) with params={"name": "Ada", "props": {"born": 1815}}. A parameter the query uses but params lacks is reported by name.
• Write counters. Results of writing queries include counters (nodes, edges, properties and labels created, deleted, set or removed).
• Embeddings. Store vectors through a parameter (INSERT (:Doc {emb: $emb})) or vector([...]): grafeo 0.5.44 stores a plain list literal as a list, which vector indexes skip. create_node, batch_import and update_node store lists of floats as vectors.

Errors

Every tool returns a string. A failure is a single message of the form Error: <tool>: <what went wrong>. Hint: <what to try next>, with the engine's own message included unchanged; over MCP it is returned with isError: true. Successful results are JSON, except the confirmation sentences of delete_node, delete_edge, create_vector_index and create_text_index.

Output size

Results that would exceed about 8,000 characters are cut down to valid JSON: entries are dropped from the end of the largest lists, long strings end with ... [N chars], and the result gets truncated: true, an omitted map (path to number of entries dropped) and a note. A tool that normally returns a JSON array (vector_search, mmr_search, search_text) then returns {"results": [...], "truncated": true, ...}. Embedding properties longer than 32 values are left out of node summaries. execute_gql, search_nodes_by_label and get_neighbors are bounded by their limit instead.

Development

git clone https://github.com/GrafeoDB/grafeo-mcp
cd grafeo-mcp
uv sync
uv run pytest          # Run tests
uv run ruff check .    # Lint
uv run ruff format .   # Format
uv run ty check        # Type check

tests/test_grafeo_contract.py pins every grafeo behavior the tools rely on, so a grafeo release that changes one fails with a message naming it. To try the newest grafeo release (pre-releases included):

uv sync --upgrade-package grafeo --prerelease allow
uv run --no-sync pytest

See Also

• [grafeo-memory](https://github.com/GrafeoDB/grafeo-memory) includes a built-in MCP server (grafeo-memory-mcp) that wraps the high-level memory API: extract, reconcile, search, summarize. If you need AI memory management rather than raw graph access, use uv add grafeo-memory[mcp].

License

Apache-2.0