Sqlanywhere MCP

sqlanywhere-mcp

MCP server for SAP SQL Anywhere 17

MCP (*Model Context Protocol*) server for SQL Anywhere 17. Lets an MCP client such as Claude Code or Claude Desktop query a SQL Anywhere database directly to explore the schema, stored procedures, triggers, and views. It runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Disclaimer: sqlanywhere-mcp is an independent, community open-source project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by SAP SE. SAP and SQL Anywhere are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE. sqlanywhere-mcp does not include or redistribute any SAP software.

Table of contents

• sqlanywhere-mcp
• Table of contents
• Prerequisites
• ODBC driver setup
• Installation
• From NuGet
• From a release
• From source
• Configuration
• File location
• Fields
• Live reload
• Database password
• Suggested helper: keyturn
• Claude Code integration
• As a plugin
• By hand
• Claude Desktop integration
• Multiple databases
• Available tools
• Databases
• Query execution
• Ownership
• Schema introspection
• Object lists
• Source retrieval
• Procedure calls
• How it works
• License

Prerequisites

• The SQL Anywhere 17 ODBC driver, installed on the machine that runs sqlanywhere-mcp. It comes with the SQL Anywhere 17 client or server install, for the platform you run on.
• On Linux and macOS, an ODBC driver manager: unixODBC (for example apt install unixodbc, dnf install unixODBC, brew install unixodbc). On Windows the driver manager is built in.
• The .NET 10 SDK, to build from source.
• An MCP client, such as Claude Code or Claude Desktop.

sqlanywhere-mcp itself is a .NET application with no platform-specific code. What differs per platform is how the driver is registered, which is covered in ODBC driver setup.

ODBC driver setup

sqlanywhere-mcp connects with the ODBC driver named SQL Anywhere 17, which is the name the Windows installer registers. Use the driver setting (see Fields) when your driver is registered under another name.

• Windows: nothing to do after installing SQL Anywhere 17.
• Linux and macOS: unixODBC needs to know the driver. Either register it in odbcinst.ini under the name SQL Anywhere 17, or set driver in config.json to the path of the driver library, for example /opt/sqlanywhere17/lib64/libdbodbc17.so (the path depends on where SQL Anywhere is installed). The driver also needs its own libraries to be loadable; SQL Anywhere provides an sa_config.sh script for that, which you can source before starting your MCP client. See SAP's documentation for the details of your platform.

When the connection fails, the tool error names the driver it used, so a wrong driver name or a missing driver is visible in the client.

Installation

There are three ways to get sqlanywhere-mcp. All of them give the same server, which needs the prerequisites above (the ODBC driver, plus unixODBC on Linux and macOS).

From NuGet

The SqlAnywhereMcp package is a .NET tool with a self-contained build for each platform (win-x64, linux-x64, linux-arm64, osx-x64, osx-arm64), so no .NET runtime is needed to run it. It needs the .NET 10 SDK to install, which provides dnx and dotnet tool.

Run it without installing, which is what MCP clients usually do:

dnx SqlAnywhereMcp --yes

Or install it as a global tool, which puts sqlanywhere-mcp on your PATH:

dotnet tool install --global SqlAnywhereMcp

To register it with Claude Code without installing anything first:

claude mcp add --transport stdio --scope user sqlanywhere -- dnx SqlAnywhereMcp --yes

From a release

Each GitHub release has an archive per platform with the self-contained executable, plus a SHA256SUMS file. Unpack the one for your platform somewhere on your PATH and verify it with sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS. The executables are not code-signed, so macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen may warn on first run.

From source

Run the install script for your platform from a regular user account (no administrator rights needed). Each one publishes a self-contained executable, so the .NET runtime is not needed to run it.

Windows (PowerShell):

.\install.ps1

It publishes sqlanywhere-mcp.exe to %LOCALAPPDATA%\sqlanywhere-mcp\, adds that directory to the user PATH, and prints the command to register the server with Claude Code.

Linux and macOS (bash):

./install.sh

It detects the platform (linux-x64, linux-arm64, osx-x64, or osx-arm64), publishes sqlanywhere-mcp to ~/.local/bin/, and prints the command to register the server with Claude Code. -c Debug builds in Debug mode.

The driver must match the architecture of the executable. If your SQL Anywhere 17 driver is x64 only, use an x64 build (on Apple silicon, the x64 build runs under Rosetta).

Any platform, by hand:

dotnet publish src/SqlAnywhereMcp -c Release -r <rid> --self-contained -o <output-dir>

where is a .NET runtime identifier such as win-x64, linux-x64, or osx-x64.

Configuration

File location

If the file is missing on first launch, an example is created automatically. Edit it and restart sqlanywhere-mcp once; after that, changes are picked up without a restart (see Live reload).

Example configuration:

{

"defaults": { "username": "dba", "passwordCommand": "keyturn get dev-db --refresh" }, "allowedProcedures": [], "defaultDatabase": "demo", "databases": { "demo": { "host": "localhost", "database": "demodb" }, "staging": { "host": "db.example.com", "port": 2700, "database": "stagingdb", "passwordCommand": "keyturn get staging-db --refresh", "allowedProcedures": ["dbo.sa_conn_info"] } } }

Unknown fields are rejected, so a misspelled field (for example allowedProcedure) is reported instead of being silently ignored.

Fields

Top level:

defaults:

Each database:

Live reload

sqlanywhere-mcp checks config.json before every tool call. When the file changed and is valid, the next call uses it: added databases become available, removed ones disappear, and open connections are closed so they reopen with the new settings. No restart of sqlanywhere-mcp or Claude Code is needed.

When the changed file is invalid (malformed JSON, an unknown field, a duplicate name, a bad procedure name, ...) or was deleted, sqlanywhere-mcp keeps using the last valid version. list_databases reports the error in reloadError, and the error is also written to sqlanywhere-mcp's standard error, which MCP clients show in their logs. Fixing the file clears it.

The first load at startup is still strict: sqlanywhere-mcp exits with an error when the file is invalid then.

Database password

sqlanywhere-mcp never stores the database password. It follows the *credential-helper pattern*: passwordCommand is a command that prints the password on its standard output, and sqlanywhere-mcp runs it each time it opens a connection, so a password that rotates is picked up on the next reconnect.

The contract for a helper:

• It prints only the password on stdout. A trailing newline is ignored.
• It exits 0 on success. Any other exit code fails the connection, and the tool returns an error naming the command and its exit code.
• Diagnostics go to stderr, which sqlanywhere-mcp passes through to its own, where MCP clients show it in their logs.
• It runs without a shell and without input (stdin is closed). Quote arguments that cont