---
title: Integrate Tiger Cloud with your AI Agent (MCP and CLI) | Tiger Data Docs
description: Install Tiger CLI, set up Tiger MCP, and manage Tiger Cloud resources from Claude, Cursor, and other AI agents
---

Tiger MCP gives your AI agent access to Tiger Cloud so you can manage services and query your data using natural language. For how Tiger MCP compares to Tiger CLI and where each fits, see [Tiger CLI and Tiger MCP](/learn/tiger-cli-mcp/index.md).

Tiger MCP is built into the Tiger CLI binary. Alongside tools to manage services and run SQL, it includes built-in skills (for example, schema design, hypertable setup, and migration planning) and is wired to Tiger Data documentation, so your AI agent can design, analyze, and recommend improvements with up-to-date guidance. This page walks you through installing Tiger CLI, configuring authentication for Tiger MCP, and managing Tiger Cloud resources from your AI agent.

## Prerequisites for this tutorial

To follow these steps, you'll need:

- A [Tiger Cloud account](/get-started/quickstart/create-service#create-a-tiger-cloud-account/index.md).

* An AI agent installed on your machine with an active API key.

  The following AI agents are **automatically** configured by Tiger MCP:

  - [`claude-code`](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code)
  - [`cursor`](https://cursor.com)
  - [`windsurf`](https://windsurf.com)
  - [`codex`](https://openai.com/codex)
  - [`gemini`](https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli)
  - [`vscode`](https://code.visualstudio.com)
  - [`antigravity`](https://antigravity.google)
  - [`kiro-cli`](https://kiro.dev/cli)

  Support for additional clients is added over time; if yours isn't listed, use [manual configuration](#manually-configure-tiger-mcp) below.

## Install and configure Tiger MCP

Tiger MCP is bundled with Tiger CLI.

1. **Install the Tiger CLI**

   In a terminal, install the CLI using the method for your platform (see [Get started with Tiger CLI](/get-started/quickstart/tiger-cli/index.md) for the latest install instructions).

2. **Authenticate Tiger CLI**

   1. **Log in to Tiger Cloud**

      In an interactive terminal, run:

      Terminal window

      ```
      tiger auth login
      ```

      Tiger CLI opens Console in your browser to sign in with OAuth. Log in, or sign up if you don't have a Tiger Cloud account yet, then authorize Tiger CLI.

   2. **Select a Tiger Cloud project**

      If you have multiple projects, the CLI will prompt you to choose one (for example, Tiger Project, company-wide project, or department project). If you have only one project, this step is skipped.

      Credentials are stored in the system keychain (or credential manager) when possible. If that fails, they are stored in `~/.config/tiger/credentials` with restricted permissions (600). Configuration is stored by default in `~/.config/tiger/config.yaml`.

   3. **Confirm the connection**

      List services to verify authentication:

      Terminal window

      ```
      tiger service list
      ```

      You'll see either an empty list with a prompt to create a service, or a table of your services (service ID, name, status, type, region, created).

3. **Install Tiger MCP**

   Run:

   Terminal window

   ```
   tiger mcp install
   ```

   Choose the MCP client to integrate with (for example, `claude-code`, `cursor`, `windsurf`, `codex`, `gemini-cli`, `vscode`) and press `Enter`.

   CLI and Tiger MCP commands

   The exact list of clients and subcommands (for example, `tiger mcp install`, `tiger mcp list`) can change with new CLI releases. If a command fails, run `tiger mcp --help`.

After this, you can use Tiger MCP from your AI agent to manage Tiger Cloud.

## Manage Tiger Cloud from your AI agent

Once connected, you can manage services and learn best practices through your agent.

1. **Start your AI agent**

   (For example, `claude`). It will start the Tiger MCP server and connect to Tiger Cloud.

2. **Confirm Tiger MCP is active**

   Ask: *"Is the Tiger MCP server active?"* You should see a summary of available tools (service management, database operations, documentation search, skills for hypertables, and others).

3. **List services**

   Ask: *"Can you list my active services?"* to see your Tiger Cloud services.

4. **Manage services in plain language**

   For example: *"Create a new AI service called bob with an HA replica."* The agent will use Tiger MCP tools to create the service.

5. **Get best practices**

   For example: *"I need to migrate a database with 25 million rows to Tiger Cloud; what service optimizations should I do before migration?"* The agent can use docs and tools to give tailored advice.

## Restrict Tiger MCP to read-only

If you want your AI agent to explore and query services without changing anything, enable read-only mode:

Terminal window

```
tiger config set read_only true
```

When read-only mode is on:

- Mutating CLI commands (`service create`, `fork`, `start`, `stop`, `resize`, `update-password`, and `delete`) are refused with an error, and the matching mutating Tiger MCP tools are not registered, so an agent cannot call them.
- The database sessions opened by the `db_execute_query` tool, `tiger db connect`, and `tiger db connection-string` run in Tiger Cloud's immutable read-only mode, so writes and schema changes (DDL) are rejected by the server.
- Read tools and commands, such as listing services or running `SELECT` queries, are unaffected.

To set read-only mode for a single session without changing your saved configuration, set the `TIGER_READ_ONLY` environment variable instead:

Terminal window

```
TIGER_READ_ONLY=true tiger mcp start
```

To turn read-only mode back off, run `tiger config unset read_only`.

## Manually configure Tiger MCP

If your MCP client isn't supported by `tiger mcp install`, add Tiger MCP manually. Many clients use a JSON config that starts the server with `tiger mcp start`:

```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tiger": {
      "command": "tiger",
      "args": ["mcp", "start"]
    }
  }
}
```

Config format may vary

Config key names (for example, `mcpServers`) and structure depend on your client. See your AI agent's MCP documentation for the exact format and where to place the file.

## Reference

For the full list of Tiger MCP tools and `tiger mcp` commands, see the [Tiger MCP reference](/reference/tiger-cloud/tiger-mcp/index.md). For every CLI command, configuration parameter, and global flag, see the [Tiger CLI reference](/reference/tiger-cloud/tiger-cli/index.md).

## Next steps

- [File an issue in the Tiger CLI repo](https://github.com/timescale/tiger-cli/issues/new): Report bugs or request features to help shape the open-source Tiger CLI and Tiger MCP.