Getting Started with Claude Desktop

Set up MCP Server to connect Claude Desktop with OAuth or PAT-based authentication for AI-powered access to your data.

Getting Started with Claude Desktop

Configure OpenMetadata’s MCP Server to interact with Anthropic’s AI assistant platform.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

1. OpenMetadata v1.8.0+ running
2. MCP Application installed in OpenMetadata
   • Navigate to <YOUR-OpenMetadata-SERVER>/marketplace/apps/McpApplication
   • Install McpApplication if not already installed
3. Claude Desktop installed

Connect with OAuth 2.0 (Recommended)

OAuth lets you authenticate using your existing OpenMetadata login, with no tokens to manage.

Step 1: Open Settings

Open Claude Desktop and navigate to Settings.

Step 2: Add a Custom Connector

Go to Connectors and click Add custom connector.

Step 3: Configure the Server

• Name: Enter a name for your connector (e.g., OpenMetadata)
• Remote MCP server URL: Enter your OpenMetadata MCP Server URL:

https://<YOUR-OpenMetadata-SERVER>/mcp

For example: https://your-openmetadata-instance.com/mcp

Click Add to save.

Step 4: Authenticate

Claude Desktop will open a browser window prompting you to sign in with your OpenMetadata credentials. Follow the on-screen instructions based on your configured authentication method:

• SSO (Google, Azure, Okta, etc.): You will be redirected to your SSO provider’s login page
• Basic Auth: Enter your OpenMetadata username and password

Once authenticated, Claude Desktop connects to your OpenMetadata MCP Server automatically. You will see the server listed with all available MCP tools.

Connect with Personal Access Token (PAT)

If you prefer token-based authentication or OAuth is not available in your environment, you can use a Personal Access Token with the mcp-remote proxy.

Prerequisites for PAT Method

In addition to the general prerequisites above, you will need:

• nvm and npx/node version 22
• OpenMetadata Personal Access Token

Configure Claude Desktop

Navigate to Claude Desktop’s Settings, then select Developer and Edit Config. Paste the following into claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "OpenMetadata": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "<YOUR-OpenMetadata-SERVER>/mcp",
        "--auth-server-url=<YOUR-OpenMetadata-SERVER>/mcp",
        "--client-id=OpenMetadata",
        "--verbose",
        "--clean",
        "--header",
        "Authorization:${AUTH_HEADER}"
      ],
      "env": {
        "AUTH_HEADER": "Bearer <YOUR-OpenMetadata-PAT>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace <YOUR-OpenMetadata-SERVER> with your OpenMetadata instance URL and <YOUR-OpenMetadata-PAT> with your Personal Access Token.

Restart Claude Desktop. You should see your OpenMetadata service running.

Prompt to Read from OpenMetadata

This part of the guide assumes that you have assets in OpenMetadata that Claude can read. You can add data sources into OpenMetadata here.

Paste the following prompt into Claude to have it read from OpenMetadata:

Imagine you're a data analyst tasked with building a customer retention dashboard.
Can you help me identify which tables or datasets in the OpenMetadata database might
contain relevant information?

Claude will ask if it can use the external integration OpenMetadata, select Allow always. You may have to do this multiple times, once for each tool. Claude is now reading from OpenMetadata via its MCP Server!

For more sample use cases with MCP please check out our blog!

Additional Resources

• OpenMetadata MCP Documentation
• OAuth 2.0 Authentication
• MCP Tools Reference

Reach out on Slack!

With MCP, we are finding new ways to use OpenMetadata all the time! Now that you have Claude and OpenMetadata configured to work together, think you’ve got a great new use case? Show us what you’ve got in Slack!