Platform MCP Server

The Quilt Platform MCP Server lets AI assistants interact with your organization's data through natural language. Built on the open Model Context Protocol, it connects Claude, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible clients directly to your Quilt environment — so users can search, browse, read, create, and query data without leaving their AI workflow.

All actions respect your existing Quilt roles and permissions. Data never leaves your AWS environment.

Capabilities

Search

Ask your AI assistant to find packages or S3 objects by name, content, metadata, or any combination. Searches use Elasticsearch query syntax under the hood, so you can be as broad ("RNA-seq experiments") or specific (ext:.parquet AND key:results/*) as you like. Results are paginated automatically — just ask for more if the first page isn't enough.

Packages

Your AI assistant can list packages in a bucket, browse a package's file tree, inspect revision metadata and history, create new packages from S3 objects or inline content, and patch existing packages by adding, updating, or removing entries — all without leaving the conversation. Workflows and user metadata are supported on create and update.

S3 Objects

List, read, inspect, download, and upload S3 objects. The assistant can read text, images, and binary files directly from s3:// or quilt+s3:// URIs, retrieve object metadata (size, content type, last modified), generate presigned download URLs you can open in a browser, and upload new content to S3.

Athena

Run SQL queries against your data lake through Amazon Athena and get results back in the conversation. This works with both standard Athena tables and Quilt Tabulator tables — the assistant automatically has access to available databases and catalogs.

Tabulator

List, create, rename, and manage Tabulator table definitions that control how package data is projected into queryable Athena tables.

Utilities

The assistant can list your accessible buckets, generate shareable Quilt catalog links for any resource, and read platform configuration such as search syntax help and Athena setup details.

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Resources

The Platform MCP Server also exposes read-only resources that give AI assistants additional context about your environment:

Resource	Description
Search Syntax	Elasticsearch query string syntax reference for search
Athena	Available databases, catalogs, and query configuration
Buckets	Accessible buckets with names, titles, and descriptions
Current User	Identity and role of the authenticated user

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Getting Started

Supported Clients

The Platform MCP Server works with any MCP-compatible AI client, including:

• Claude.ai (web)

• Cursor (desktop)

• Any client supporting the Model Context Protocol

Connecting Claude.ai

An Organization administrator adds Quilt as a connector:

1. Go to Organization Settings -> Connectors

2. Click Add Custom Connector

3. Enter your Connect Server URL: https://<connect-host>/mcp/platform/mcp

Connecting Cursor and other desktop clients

Add the following to your MCP client configuration (in Cursor: Settings -> MCP -> Add new global MCP server):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quilt": {
      "url": "https://<connect-host>/mcp/platform/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Your administrator must include the client's custom scheme (e.g. cursor://) in ConnectAllowedHosts for the OAuth flow to complete.

Connecting ChatGPT

In ChatGPT, go to Settings -> Apps -> Create app (Developer mode required). Set:

• MCP Server URL: https://<connect-host>/mcp/platform/mcp

• Authentication: OAuth

• OIDC enabled: on, with OIDC scopes supported: platform

Leave the OAuth endpoint fields on their auto-discovered values.

chatgpt.com must be in ConnectAllowedHosts (see Connect.md).

Connecting Databricks

In the Databricks Catalog HTTP connection UI, fill in:

Field	Value
Connection type	HTTP
Is MCP connection	true
Host	https://<connect-host>
Base path	/mcp/platform/mcp

Databricks discovers the OAuth endpoints from /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server and uses https://<region>.cloud.databricks.com/api/2.0/http/oauth/redirect as its redirect URI (the workspace region determines the exact host).

.cloud.databricks.com must be in ConnectAllowedHosts so DCR accepts that redirect URI (see Connect.md). Quilt Connect already emits the :443-explicit metadata Databricks requires — see Connect.md OAuth Metadata for why.

Serverless egress caveat. Databricks Apps and serving endpoints run on a serverless network plane that blocks outbound traffic by default. Two distinct outbound legs need egress, and a Databricks account admin must allow both in the serverless network policy attached to the workspace:

• <connect-host> — the tool-calling leg. Without it, tool listing fails with Access to <connect-host> is denied because of serverless network policy (the host named in this error).

• <catalog-host> — the OAuth authorize-redirect leg. The authorize endpoint is cross-served: <connect-host>/connect/authorize returns a 302 to the catalog UI on <catalog-host>, which the client follows during sign-in. This leg does not surface the error above, so allowing only <connect-host> is not enough.

This is not a per-connection or per-app setting; the connection creator cannot fix it.

Confirm the block from a Databricks SQL warehouse:

SELECT * FROM system.access.outbound_network
WHERE event_time >= CURRENT_TIMESTAMP() - INTERVAL 2 HOUR
ORDER BY event_time DESC;

See the Databricks docs: serverless network policies overview and managing serverless network policies.

User Authorization

Each user must authorize their MCP connection once:

Web clients (e.g. Claude.ai):

1. Log in to your Quilt stack as usual (e.g. via Okta SSO)

2. Go to Settings -> Connectors

3. Click Connect

Desktop clients (e.g. Cursor): the OAuth flow starts automatically the first time the client connects to the MCP server.

In both cases, you will see the Quilt authorization page at /connect/authorize, showing the name of the AI client and what it is requesting access to. Click Continue to grant access or Cancel to deny it.

After authorizing, the AI assistant receives a session token scoped to your Quilt user — it cannot access data beyond what your assigned Quilt role permits. You do not need to re-authorize the same client unless your session expires or the Quilt stack is redeployed.

Once authenticated, you may also need to authorize individual tools when used. You can pre-authorize them by clicking Configure on the connector page.

Quilt Connect Server

Quilt MCP Configuration

Headless Access with API Keys

For automation, AWS-side services, and other non-interactive clients that cannot complete an OAuth flow, the MCP server also accepts a Quilt API key as a bearer token:

POST https://<connect-host>/mcp/platform/mcp
Authorization: Bearer qk_...

For stdio-mode MCP clients, set the key in the environment instead:

export QUILT_API_KEY=qk_...

The MCP request executes under the API key owner's role and bucket permissions, exactly as an OAuth-issued session would. Generate, list, and revoke keys via quilt3.api_keys (see the Authentication guide).

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Administrator Reference

The Platform MCP Server runs behind Quilt Connect Server, which handles OAuth authentication, session tokens, and request routing within your AWS environment. See the Quilt Connect page for CloudFormation parameters, DNS configuration, and IP allowlisting.