dbt-docs-mcp

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for interacting with dbt project metadata, including dbt Docs artifacts (manifest.json, catalog.json). This server exposes dbt graph information and allows querying node details, model/column lineage, and related metadata.

Key Functionality

This server provides tools to:

• Search dbt Nodes:
• Find nodes (models, sources, tests, etc.) by name (search_dbt_node_names).
• Locate nodes based on column names (search_dbt_column_names).
• Search within the compiled SQL code of nodes (search_dbt_sql_code).
• Inspect Nodes:
• Retrieve detailed attributes for any given node unique ID (get_dbt_node_attributes).
• Explore Lineage:
• Find direct upstream dependencies (predecessors) of a node (get_dbt_predecessors).
• Find direct downstream dependents (successors) of a node (get_dbt_successors).
• Column-Level Lineage:
• Trace all upstream sources for a specific column in a model (get_column_ancestors).
• Trace all downstream dependents of a specific column in a model (get_column_descendants).
• Suggested extensions:
• Tool that allows executing SQL queries.
• Tool that retrieves table/view/column metadata directly from the database.
• Tool to search knowledge-base.

Getting Started

1. Prerequisites: Ensure you have Python installed and uv
2. Clone the repo:

    git clone <repository-url>
    cd dbt-docs-mcp

1. Optional: parse dbt manifest for column-level lineage:

• Setup the required Python environment, e.g.:

    uv sync

• Use the provided script scripts/create_manifest_cl.py and simply provide the path to your dbt manifest, dbt catalog and the desired output paths for your schema and column lineage file:

    python scripts/create_manifest_cl.py --manifest-path PATH_TO_YOUR_MANIFEST_FILE --catalog-path PATH_TO_YOUR_CATALOG_FILE --schema-mapping-path DESIRED_OUTPUT_PATH_FOR_SCHEMA_MAPPING --manifest-cl-path DESIRED_OUTPUT_PATH_FOR_MANIFEST_CL

• Depending on your dbt project size, creating column-lineage can take a while (hours)

1. Run the Server:

• If your desired MCP client (Claude desktop, Cursor, etc.) supports mcp.json it would look as below:

    {
        "mcpServers": {
            "DBT Docs MCP": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "--with",
                "networkx,mcp[cli],rapidfuzz,dbt-core,python-decouple,sqlglot,tqdm",
                "mcp",
                "run",
                "/Users/mattijs/repos/dbt-docs-mcp/src/mcp_server.py"
            ],
            "env": {
                "MANIFEST_PATH": "/Users/mattijs/repos/dbt-docs-mcp/inputs/manifest.json",
                "SCHEMA_MAPPING_PATH": "/Users/mattijs/repos/dbt-docs-mcp/outputs/schema_mapping.json",
                "MANIFEST_CL_PATH": "/Users/mattijs/repos/dbt-docs-mcp/outputs/manifest_column_lineage.json"
            }
            }
        }
    }