Turn Your AI Agents into Data Experts with Alation's MCP Server

Stop building AI agents that stumble around your data warehouse blindfolded. The Alation AI Agent SDK's MCP server gives your agents direct access to your organization's data catalog, transforming them from generic assistants into knowledgeable data experts who understand your schemas, relationships, and business context.

The Real Problem with Data-Aware AI

You've built an impressive AI agent, but when users ask "What tables contain customer data?" or "How do I join sales with customer information?", your agent either hallucinates table names or gives generic responses that waste everyone's time. Without access to your data catalog's institutional knowledge, even the most sophisticated agents are flying blind.

Meanwhile, your data catalog sits there with all the answers: certified datasets, common joins, business definitions, data lineage, and usage patterns that took years to curate. The disconnect is painful.

What Makes This MCP Server Different

This isn't just another API wrapper. Alation's MCP server was designed specifically for AI reasoning patterns:

Natural Language Search: Your agents can ask "What certified data set is used for credit decisions?" and get back actual, relevant catalog entries instead of guessing at table names.

Smart Response Shaping: Using signatures, you control exactly what metadata gets returned. Need just table names and descriptions? Or full schema details with common joins? You decide per query:

signature = {
    "table": {
        "fields_required": ["name", "title", "description"],
        "fields_optional": ["common_joins", "common_filters"]
    }
}

Context-Aware Results: The server understands your question and returns multiple object types in a single response - tables, columns, data products, whatever's relevant to the query.

Real-World Use Cases That Just Work

Data Discovery Agent: Users describe what they need ("sales data from last quarter with customer demographics"), and your agent searches the catalog to find the right certified datasets and explains how to access them.

Query Assistant: Before generating SQL, your agent checks the catalog for table relationships, common joins, and approved filters, producing queries that actually work with your data model.

Compliance Helper: When someone asks about sensitive data, your agent can identify which tables contain PII, what the approved access patterns are, and who the data stewards are.

Onboarding Accelerator: New team members ask your agent about available datasets, and it provides not just table lists but business context, ownership information, and usage examples from the catalog.

Integration That Fits Your Stack

MCP-Native: Drop into Claude Desktop, LibreChat, or any MCP-compatible environment. The server exposes alation_context and get_data_products tools that work immediately.

LangChain Ready: The included LangChain adapter integrates seamlessly with your existing agent workflows:

from alation_ai_agent_langchain import AlationContextTool

# Add to your LangChain agent's toolkit
tools = [AlationContextTool(alation_api)]
agent = create_react_agent(llm, tools, prompt)

Flexible Authentication: Supports both user accounts and service accounts, with straightforward token-based auth that respects your organization's security model.

Setup in Minutes, Not Days

# Install the MCP server
pip install alation-ai-agent-mcp

# Configure your Alation connection
export ALATION_BASE_URL="https://your-alation-instance.com"
export ALATION_REFRESH_TOKEN="your_token"

# Start the MCP server
python -m alation_ai_agent_mcp

Your agents can immediately start asking questions like "Show me all tables related to customer orders" and get back structured, relevant results from your actual data catalog.

Why This Belongs in Your AI Infrastructure

Data-aware AI agents aren't a nice-to-have anymore - they're table stakes for any organization serious about AI-powered analytics and data democratization. The Alation MCP server bridges the critical gap between your AI investments and your data reality.

Instead of building custom connectors or wrestling with generic database tools, you get purpose-built integration that understands how AI agents think about data problems. Your catalog knowledge becomes immediately available to any AI workflow, transforming agents from data-blind assistants into knowledgeable data partners.

Ready to give your AI agents the data context they've been missing? The Alation AI Agent SDK is waiting in your toolkit.