Airbyte MCP tools

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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 adds safeguards to tools that change or delete resources.

• Deletes require a marked name. Tools that permanently delete sources, destinations, connections, and custom connector definitions only work if the resource's name contains delete-me or deleteme. To let your agent delete a resource, rename it yourself first.
• You can turn off tools that change things. To hide destructive tools or block changes to pipelines, see Advanced configuration.
• Local demo mode limits changes to the current session. If you run the Airbyte MCP locally, set AIRBYTE_CLOUD_MCP_LOCAL_DEMO_MODE=1 so tools only change or delete resources your agent created in the same session. The hosted server ignores this setting.
• 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_workspace_context	Get your default organization and workspace.
list_organizations	List the organizations you can access.
describe_organization	Get details about an organization.
get_organization_billing_status	Get billing and account status for an organization. Requires an organization reader or admin role. Airbyte Cloud only.
list_workspaces	List the workspaces you can access.
describe_workspace	Get details about a workspace, like its name, URL, and organization.
set_default_workspace	Change your default workspace. This changes your default workspace in the Airbyte web app, too.

Sources and destinations

Tool	Description
list_connectors	List the sources and destinations in a workspace.
describe_connector	Get details about a source or destination, including its configuration, connections, and direct read instructions.
deploy_connector	Create a source or destination in a workspace.
deploy_noop_destination	Create a No-op destination for testing a source.
check_connector	Test the configuration and credentials of a source or destination.
rename_connector	Rename a source or destination.
update_connector_config	Change the configuration of a source or destination.
permanently_delete_connector	Delete a source or destination.

Connections and syncs

Tool	Description
list_connections	List the connections in a workspace.
describe_connection	Get details about a connection, like its streams, schedule, and status.
create_connection	Create a connection between a source and a destination.
update_connection	Turn a connection on or off, change its sync schedule or stream configuration, or apply a discovered catalog.
rename_connection	Rename a connection.
set_connection_selected_streams	Choose which streams a connection syncs.
set_connection_table_prefix	Set the table prefix for a connection.
discover_source_catalog	Discover a source's catalog, check discovery progress, or compare catalogs.
get_connection_artifact	Get a connection's state or configured catalog.
permanently_delete_connection	Delete a connection.
run_connection_sync	Start a sync.
cancel_connection_sync	Cancel a running sync.
get_connection_sync_status	Get the status of a sync job.
list_connection_sync_jobs	List the recent sync jobs for a connection.
get_connection_sync_logs	Read the logs from a sync job, to troubleshoot failures.

Dashboards

These tools display interactive views. They're only available in clients that support MCP Apps.

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_connector_definitions	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 agent access and agent access is on for the source or destination. They're read-only. They're only available in Airbyte Cloud. See Agent access limitations.

Tool	Description
get_external_access_skill_docs	Get a deployed connector's direct-access skill docs: its entities, actions, and parameters. Your agent reads this before it reads data.
execute_external_api_query	Read live records from a source's API. Supports list, get, and search when the connector offers them.
execute_external_sql_query	Run a read-only SQL query on a Snowflake or BigQuery destination. Supports SELECT/WITH queries and the SHOW TABLES, SHOW DATABASES, and DESCRIBE TABLE <table> commands.

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_external_access_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.
search	Search with the connector's own API, when supported. This isn't context layer search.	Search a source's API for contacts by email.

Direct reads can't create, update, or delete records.

Search

These tools work with the context layer search index in Airbyte Cloud. An organization administrator must enable Semantic search, and the connection must have search enabled. Unlike a direct read's search action, context layer search queries indexed synced data rather than a connector's API.

Tool	Description
execute_external_search_query	Search a source or destination's indexed data by keyword, meaning, or both. Hybrid is the default. Searches are read-only.
get_search_index_status	Check indexed streams and backfill progress for a source or destination.
request_search_index_backfill	Request indexing of data already in a connection's destination. Supports Snowflake and BigQuery; uses destination compute.

Searches count toward the same monthly usage limit as direct reads. For examples and setup, see Search your data.

Search query parameters

The agent supplies these parameters to execute_external_search_query.

Parameter	What it controls
prompt	The words or question to search for.
search_type	The mode: keyword, semantic, or hybrid. Defaults to hybrid.
limit	The maximum number of results, from 1 to 100. Defaults to 10.
streams	The streams to search. Omit it to search every indexed stream, or pass an empty list to search none. Each entry includes stream_name and can include namespace to distinguish streams with the same name.
streams[].source_id	The source that owns a stream. Required for each stream in a destination search. Optional in a source search, where it must match the source you're searching.
streams[].fields	The fields to return in each result's entity_data. This is an output projection, not a match filter: other indexed fields can still match and appear in the context. Omit it for the full indexed payload, or use an empty list for no payload fields.
lookback_seconds	Restrict results to records whose cursor falls within this many seconds.
min_similarity	The minimum semantic similarity for a match. Applies to semantic and hybrid searches only.
max_similarity_diff	The maximum similarity gap from the best semantic match in an index. Applies to semantic and hybrid searches only.
max_context_chars	Limit the text context returned for each result. A shortened keyword context stays centered on the match.
destination_id	Choose which destination's index to use for a source search. Required when the source syncs to multiple enabled destinations.

Backfill parameters

For request_search_index_backfill, provide the connection ID. Optionally, provide streams to backfill specific selected streams and backfill_start_time to limit history. Omit streams to backfill every selected stream, or omit backfill_start_time for full history. Backfills use destination compute but don't change destination records.

Connector registry and documentation

Tool	Description
list_connector_definitions	Search the Airbyte connector catalog.
get_connector_definition	Get a connector's metadata, documentation URL, and configuration specification.
get_connector_definition_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	Search Airbyte's documentation, website, API specifications, YouTube videos, and GitHub content. Only available in the hosted Airbyte MCP.