The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is Anthropic's open standard for letting AI assistants call tools. EQQ's MCP Gateway turns every governed query into a tool that Cursor, Windsurf, Continue, VS Code, or Claude Desktop can invoke - without handing the model raw SQL access.

Why raw database MCP access is risky — and how EQQ handles it

Every Active query becomes a governed API endpoint - the same endpoint the MCP Gateway exposes to AI assistants.
Every Active query becomes a governed API endpoint - the same endpoint the MCP Gateway exposes to AI assistants.
  • Auth. An API key maps to a role, which maps to a set of queries. The model can only use what that key permits.
  • Schema. EQQ exposes each query as an MCP tool with a JSON schema for inputs - the model knows exactly what parameters to pass.
  • Safety. Because the model cannot write SQL, prompt injection cannot escalate access.
  • Audit. Every AI-triggered run is logged with a marker showing the calling agent.

The six MCP tools EQQ exposes to AI clients

  • list_queries - what queries this key can use
  • get_query_detail - columns, description, metadata
  • get_query_parameters - JSON schema of inputs
  • execute_query - run and return rows
  • export_query - write to xlsx/csv/json
  • execute_chart_query - run with chart classification

How the gateway enforces governance

The gateway is a small .NET 8 service that speaks MCP over HTTP streaming. It calls EQQ's existing REST API with the supplied API key - no back-channel, no special privileges. If the key cannot run a query through the web UI, it cannot run it through MCP either.

Wiring up a supported MCP client

EQQ supports Cursor, Windsurf, Continue, VS Code, and Claude Desktop. The MCP endpoint is available under My Account → AI Assistant Integration in the EQQ web app. The exact config format shown in the app is:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "eqq": {
      "url": "http://[your-eqq-server]/mcp",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

Config file locations by client: ~/.cursor/mcp.json for Cursor, ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json for Windsurf. Claude Desktop uses its own MCP settings panel. See the MCP Gateway docs for the full per-client setup guide.