Airbyte MCP tools
The Airbyte MCP is in private beta. Features and tools may change. It's available to Airbyte Cloud organizations enrolled in the beta. You can also run the Airbyte MCP with self-managed Airbyte Core, with known issues.
The Airbyte MCP gives your agent a set of tools. Your agent chooses which tools to call based on your prompt, so you don't need to call them by name. This page lists each tool so you know what your agent can and can't do.
Your agent acts on behalf of the Airbyte user who signed in to the Airbyte MCP. If you connect with an Airbyte application, that's the user who created the application. Every tool acts with that user's Airbyte permissions. If their Airbyte role doesn't allow an action, the tool fails.
Direct reads work differently. When your agent reads directly from a source or destination, the third-party system sees a request from the credentials stored in that connector in that workspace, not from you. Your Airbyte permissions still control which connectors your agent can use, but the stored credentials control which records it can read.
Safety
Your agent can see and use every resource your Airbyte permissions allow. To prevent your agent from accidentally breaking existing pipelines, the Airbyte MCP limits which resources it can change.
- Destructive tools are limited to the current session. Tools that delete, overwrite, or reconfigure resources only act on resources your agent created in the same session. They can't delete a connection someone else built.
- Your MCP client asks before acting. Each tool tells your client whether it's read-only or destructive. Most clients ask you to approve tools that change things.
Workspaces and organizations
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
get_default_cloud_context | Get your default organization and workspace. |
list_cloud_organizations | List the organizations you can access. |
describe_cloud_organization | Get details about an organization. |
get_cloud_organization_billing_status | Get billing and account status for an organization. Requires an organization reader or admin role. Airbyte Cloud only. |
list_cloud_workspaces | List the workspaces you can access. |
describe_cloud_workspace | Get details about a workspace, like its name, URL, and organization. |
set_default_cloud_workspace | Change your default workspace. This changes your default workspace in the Airbyte web app, too. |
Sources and destinations
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
list_cloud_connectors | List the sources and destinations in a workspace. |
describe_cloud_connector | Get details about a source or destination, including its configuration, connections, and direct read instructions. |
deploy_connector_to_cloud | Create a source or destination in a workspace. |
deploy_noop_destination_to_cloud | Create a No-op destination for testing a source. |
check_cloud_connector | Test the configuration and credentials of a source or destination. |
rename_cloud_connector | Rename a source or destination. |
update_cloud_connector_config | Change the configuration of a source or destination. |
permanently_delete_cloud_connector | Delete a source or destination. |
Connections and syncs
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
list_cloud_connections | List the connections in a workspace. |
describe_cloud_connection | Get details about a connection, like its streams, schedule, and status. |
create_connection_on_cloud | Create a connection between a source and a destination. |
update_cloud_connection | Turn a connection on or off, or change its sync schedule. |
rename_cloud_connection | Rename a connection. |
set_cloud_connection_selected_streams | Choose which streams a connection syncs. |
set_cloud_connection_table_prefix | Set the table prefix for a connection. |
get_connection_artifact | Get a connection's state or configured catalog. |
permanently_delete_cloud_connection | Delete a connection. |
run_cloud_sync | Start a sync. |
cancel_cloud_sync | Cancel a running sync. |
get_cloud_sync_status | Get the status of a sync job. |
list_cloud_sync_jobs | List the recent sync jobs for a connection. |
get_cloud_sync_logs | Read the logs from a sync job, to troubleshoot failures. |
Dashboards
These tools display interactive views in clients that support MCP Apps. In other clients, they return the same information as text.
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
show_workspace_sync_status | Show a sync status dashboard for a workspace. |
show_connection_sync_history | Show sync history, success rates, and volume for a connection. |
show_connectors_list | Show a catalog of Airbyte connectors you can browse. |
Custom connectors
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
list_custom_source_definitions | List the custom connectors in a workspace. |
get_custom_source_definition | Get a custom connector, including its YAML manifest. |
get_connector_builder_draft_manifest | Get the unpublished draft of a custom connector from the Connector Builder. |
publish_custom_source_definition | Publish a YAML manifest as a custom connector. |
update_custom_source_definition | Update a custom connector's YAML manifest. |
permanently_delete_custom_source_definition | Delete a custom connector. |
Direct reads
These tools read data directly from sources and destinations. They only work after an organization admin enables the context layer and turns on agent access for the source or destination. They're read-only. They're only available in Airbyte Cloud.
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
get_agent_skill_docs | Get a connector skill: the entities, actions, and parameters a source or destination supports for direct reads. Your agent reads this before it reads data. |
execute_external_api_query | Read live records from a source's API. Supports the list and get actions. |
execute_external_sql_query | Run a read-only SQL query on a Snowflake or BigQuery destination. Only SELECT statements and SHOW TABLES are allowed. |
Connector skills
Every connector's API is different. A connector skill is a short document that tells your agent which entities it can read, like contacts or tickets, and which parameters each action accepts. Before your agent reads data from a source, it calls get_agent_skill_docs to learn that connector's skill. This prevents your agent from guessing at parameter names. To learn more, see Connector skills for Airbyte agents.
Direct read actions
| Action | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
list | Return a page of records for an entity, with optional filters. | List open Zendesk tickets. |
get | Return one record by its ID. | Get the HubSpot contact with ID 123. |
Direct reads can't create, update, or delete records.
Connector registry and documentation
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
list_connectors | Search the Airbyte connector catalog. |
get_connector_info | Get a connector's metadata, documentation URL, and configuration specification. |
get_connector_version_history | Get a connector's recent versions and changelog. |
get_api_docs_urls | Get links to the documentation for a connector's third-party API. |
search_airbyte_knowledge_sources | Look up answers in Airbyte's documentation and source code for the platform and connectors. Only available in the hosted Airbyte MCP. |