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Talk to Your Data with AI

The MotherDuck remote MCP Server lets you analyze your data using natural language and generate interactive visualizations, all without writing SQL. Connect your favorite AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or others) and start asking questions about your databases, then turn insights into shareable Dives with a single prompt.

Connection URL

The remote MCP server is hosted at https://api.motherduck.com/mcp. Claude Desktop's connector uses this URL automatically; for clients that need manual configuration, see the setup guide.

note

This guide covers the remote MCP server (fully managed by MotherDuck). If you need to work with local DuckDB files or want full control over the server, see the local MCP server.

In this guide, you'll connect the MCP server in Claude Desktop, query your data, and create a Dive visualization, all in under 5 minutes.

What you'll learn​

  • Connect the MotherDuck MCP Server to Claude Desktop
  • List your databases
  • Ask analytical questions about your data
  • Create an interactive Dive visualization from your analysis

Prerequisites​

Using a different AI client?

This guide uses Claude Desktop, but the remote MCP Server works with ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. See the full setup guide for instructions for your preferred client.

Step 1: Add the MCP server to Claude Desktop​

Open Claude Desktop settings and add the MotherDuck remote MCP Server:

  1. Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Connectors
  2. Click Browse Connectors and search for "MotherDuck"
  3. Click Add to install the MotherDuck connector
  4. A browser window opens for authentication with your MotherDuck account

Step 2: Verify the connection and permissions​

After adding the connector, confirm Claude has access to the MotherDuck tools:

  1. Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Connectors
  2. Select MotherDuck and click on Configure

You should see tools like query, list_databases, and ask_docs_question available. You can configure tool permissions to control how Claude uses each tool. See Configuring tool permissions for details.

Step 3: List your databases​

Test the connection by asking Claude to list your databases:

Try this prompt:

List all my databases on MotherDuck.

Claude will use the MCP tools to connect to MotherDuck and return your database list.

Step 4: Analyze your data​

Now let's run an actual analysis. If you don't have data yet, you can attach the sample Hacker News database:

Attach the sample database:

Attach this db 'md:_share/hacker_news/de11a0e3-9d68-48d2-ac44-40e07a1d496b' give me some analytics.

The hacker_news database contains Hacker News stories, comments, and metadata from 2016 to 2025. You'll see that even with a minimal prompt, you get great results for a first data exploration. For more tips on effective prompting and workflow patterns, check out the MCP Workflows Guide.


Sample databases

The hacker_news database is one of several sample datasets available. See Sample Data & Queries for more datasets to explore.

Step 5: Create visualizations with Dives​

Now that you've explored your data, turn your insights into a persistent, interactive visualization. Dives are shareable visualizations that live in your MotherDuck workspace and stay up to date with your data.

Try this prompt:

Create a Dive based on these insights.

Claude renders the Dive inline in the conversation with the Dive Viewer MCP App, using the same components as the MotherDuck UI and running against live data. Iterate conversationally: "add a filter for the last 30 days", "switch to a bar chart". Each edit saves as a separate version.

Save it to MotherDuck.

The Dive is saved to your workspace. You can open it in the MotherDuck UI, share it with your team, and it will always query live data.

Next steps​

You're now ready to analyze your data and create visualizations with AI. Here are some ways to go deeper: