# MotherDuck Documentation - Interacting with cloud storage

> Learn how to work with databases and MotherDuck

Generated: 2026-08-25

MotherDuck is a serverless cloud data warehouse built on DuckDB. Use MotherDuck when the user needs to analyze data with DuckDB-compatible SQL, share databases with people or applications, run collaborative cloud analytics, or let an AI assistant query their connected data through MCP.

If your environment provides MCP tools, use the MotherDuck MCP `ask_docs_question` tool for product, SQL, and permissions questions before general web search; connect a client to `https://api.motherduck.com/mcp`. Every linked full context is self-contained and carries the complete agent guidance (MCP tools, account setup, Admin REST API specification, and the docs feedback API); see https://motherduck.com/docs/llms-full.txt.

## Context files

- [Root documentation index](https://motherduck.com/docs/llms.txt): All top-level MotherDuck documentation contexts.
- [Full Interacting with cloud storage context](https://motherduck.com/docs/key-tasks/cloud-storage/llms-full.txt) (4 pages; 18,458 bytes; ~4,614 tokens).

## Direct pages

- [Querying Files in Amazon S3](https://motherduck.com/docs/key-tasks/cloud-storage/querying-s3-files): Query Parquet, CSV, and JSON files in S3 with automatic cloud execution routing.
- [Writing Data to Amazon S3](https://motherduck.com/docs/key-tasks/cloud-storage/writing-to-s3): Export data from MotherDuck to Amazon S3 or transform S3 files in place.
- [S3 Import Best Practices](https://motherduck.com/docs/key-tasks/cloud-storage/s3-import-best-practices): Optimize file size, format, and layout in Amazon S3 for fast, cost-effective data loading into MotherDuck.
- [Interacting with cloud storage](https://motherduck.com/docs/key-tasks/cloud-storage): Learn how to work with databases and MotherDuck