django-mcp-sql

A tightly scoped, read-only PostgreSQL surface for an LLM agent (e.g. Claude Code) over the Model Context Protocol. Defense-in-depth at four layers: parser (sqlglot AST validators), executor (PG NOLOGIN role + GUCs), DB-role (mcp_readonly_role SELECT grants), and transport (DRF + django-oauth-toolkit OAuth 2.1 with PKCE + RFC 7591/8414/9728 discovery).

Status: pre-release alpha (0.1.0a1). The package is used in production as part of a larger Django project; expect the public API and settings shape to move between alpha releases.

What you get

Three MCP tools mounted at /mcp/sql/:

Tool	Purpose
list_tables()	Returns the whitelisted db_tables for the surface (sorted).
describe_table(name)	Returns column types / null / pk for a whitelisted table.
run_query(sql, limit=None)	Validates + executes a single SELECT. Returns {columns, rows, row_count, truncated, duration_ms, hint, rejection_reason, error, data_handling}. rows (and error, when set) come back wrapped in a per-response random-UUID <untrusted-data-…> fence so DB content carrying a prompt-injection payload can't be read as agent instructions; data_handling explains the boundary.

Every call writes one append-only MCPQueryLog audit row. Every auth rejection writes one MCPAuthRejectionLog row (six resolved-user gates; anonymous / bad-token probing goes through Django-cache counters with a silent per-IP block, not the audit table — use a shared cache backend (Redis, Memcached) in production: with a per-process backend like LocMem the counters, and therefore the block, are per-worker).

Observability — per-user query-volume tripwires (one ERROR per (user, decision, window) crossing of VOLUME_ALERT_THRESHOLDS; alerts, never blocks), an ERROR when a user is added to the MCP permission group, and read-only Django admin browsers for both audit tables plus a per-user usage-summary view (allowed / rejected / auth-rejection counts per rolling window). The package emits logger.error only — wire a Sentry LoggingIntegration(event_level=logging.ERROR) to receive these as events; the package itself never imports sentry_sdk.

Postgres-only by design

The package depends on Postgres features that don't port: SET LOCAL ROLE into a NOLOGIN role, statement_timeout / lock_timeout / idle_in_transaction_session_timeout / default_transaction_read_only GUCs, PG-only error codes (57014, 42501), CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW semantics, sqlglot's dialect='postgres'. There is no design path to MySQL / SQLite without a parallel implementation — hence django-mcp-sql not django-mcp-mysql etc.

Installation

pip install django-mcp-sql
# Optional extras
pip install "django-mcp-sql[allauth]"   # wire MFA gate to allauth.mfa.utils.is_mfa_enabled

Then in your Django settings:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ... your apps ...
    "rest_framework",
    "oauth2_provider",
    "mcp_sql",
]

DATABASES = {
    "default": { ... },
    # Required: dedicated read-only alias. The executor asserts
    # connection.alias == MCP_SQL["DB_ALIAS"] before issuing any SELECT.
    "mcp_readonly": {
        # ... pointed at the same database as default but as a non-superuser ...
        "OPTIONS": {"application_name": "mcp-readonly"},
        "ATOMIC_REQUESTS": False,
        "CONN_MAX_AGE": 0,
    },
}

DATABASE_ROUTERS = ["mcp_sql.db_router.McpSqlRouter"]

MCP_SQL = {
    "ALLOWED_MODELS": [
        "auth.Permission",  # your real whitelist goes here
    ],
    "BAN_SELECT_STAR": True,
    "LIMITS": {"DEFAULT_LIMIT": 10, "HARD_LIMIT": 100, "BYTES_LIMIT": 256 * 1024},
    # Per-user volume tripwires: {decision: {window_seconds: threshold}}.
    # Crossing emits one Sentry ERROR per (user, decision, window) bucket;
    # it alerts, it never blocks.
    "VOLUME_ALERT_THRESHOLDS": {
        "allowed": {3600: 50, 86400: 150},
        "rejected": {3600: 50, 86400: 150},
    },
    "BAD_TOKEN_IP_THRESHOLD": 100,
    "BAD_TOKEN_IP_WINDOW_SECONDS": 21600,
    # Optional overrides — see `mcp_sql/conf.py` DEFAULTS for the full list:
    # "RESOURCE_NAME": "My App",
    # "MFA_CHECKER": "allauth.mfa.utils.is_mfa_enabled",
    # "SESSION_MODEL": "your_app.Session",  # opt-in runtime session-existence gate;
                                            # must be a session model with a `user` FK
                                            # (stock `django.contrib.sessions.Session`
                                            # does NOT qualify — its absence of a `user`
                                            # column is why the default is `None`)
}

OAUTH2_PROVIDER = {
    "OAUTH2_VALIDATOR_CLASS": "mcp_sql.oauth.MCPOAuth2Validator",
    "SCOPES": {"mcp:sql": "Read-only SQL surface for MCP agents"},
    "DEFAULT_SCOPES": ["mcp:sql"],
    "ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_SECONDS": 6 * 3600,
    "REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRE_SECONDS": 0,
    "AUTHORIZATION_CODE_EXPIRE_SECONDS": 60,
    "PKCE_REQUIRED": True,
    "ALLOWED_REDIRECT_URI_SCHEMES": ["http"],   # RFC 8252 loopback
}

Wire the URLs in your project's urls.py:

urlpatterns = [
    # ... your routes ...
    path("", include("mcp_sql.urls")),
]

Then run the DBA setup once per environment (creates the mcp_readonly_role Postgres role + role-level guard GUCs):

psql -U <superuser> -d <database> \
    -v app_role=<your_app_role> \
    -f $(python -c "import mcp_sql, os; print(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(mcp_sql.__file__), 'sql/role_setup.sql'))")

Then apply migrations and the SELECT grants:

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py mcp_sql_grants --apply

Documentation

The architecture / design doc and the full operational runbooks ship inside the package (importable consumers find them under mcp_sql/docs/):

• docs/architecture.md — design, file map, settings shape, OAuth surface, curated-view pattern, the complete "Watch out" list.
• docs/role-setup.md — DBA setup, grants reconciliation, sanity checks.
• docs/oauth.md — OAuth issuance gate, MCP client registration, incident response.

Compatibility

• Python: 3.11+
• Django: 5.2+ (LTS line; 6.0 untested).
• Postgres: 14+ recommended (uses pg_has_role, information_schema.role_table_grants, SET LOCAL ROLE, CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW — all of which work on earlier versions, but the test matrix runs on 14+).

The package has been exercised against a 2000+ test suite in a real Django CRM. Its own standalone suite (make test, settings in tests/settings.py) runs in CI across Python 3.11–3.13 against PostgreSQL 14 (.github/workflows/ci.yml).

Postgres role setup

Once per environment, a DBA with PG superuser rights applies sql/role_setup.sql to create the mcp_readonly_role role + the role-level guard GUCs (statement_timeout, lock_timeout, idle_in_transaction_session_timeout, default_transaction_read_only) and grant the role membership to the consuming app's PG user. The script is idempotent and is parameterised by a -v app_role=<role> psql variable so a single SQL file works across deployments whose app role differs.

psql -h <pg_host> -U <pg_superuser> -d <database> \
    -v app_role=<app_pg_role> \
    -f sql/role_setup.sql

# Verify:
psql -h <pg_host> -U <pg_superuser> -d <database> -c "\du mcp_readonly_role"
# Expected: row present, "Cannot login".

After the role exists, apply the package's migrations and reconcile the table-level SELECT grants:

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py mcp_sql_grants --apply

See docs/role-setup.md for the full DBA-facing runbook (drift detection, CI gates, troubleshooting).

Local example

A standalone, stock-Django consumer of the package lives in the example/ directory of the repository (not shipped in the wheel). It demonstrates the package against a vanilla Django setup — auth.User, stock sessions, no allauth — including a two-profile (multi-tier) configuration with a row-and-column-limited curated view. Its own README carries the full end-to-end runbook: bootstrap, OAuth dance, and registering the server with claude mcp add.

Development

Run the package's own test suite (needs uv and a reachable PostgreSQL — see tests/settings.py for the MCP_SQL_TEST_PG_* connection env vars. Bootstrap mcp_readonly_role via sql/role_setup.sql first — several tests enter it with SET LOCAL ROLE — and connect as a superuser so the role-isolation tests run instead of skipping):

make test

Build the distribution and verify the wheel installs cleanly into a fresh venv (Django-independent imports + package-data presence):

make build              # produces ./dist/django_mcp_sql-<version>-py3-none-any.whl + .tar.gz
make test-install       # ephemeral build + venv install + import & package-data smoke

All targets require uv on PATH (install once: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh). Release/extraction mechanics live in RELEASING.md; contribution expectations in CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT.