Postgres

Gather your PostgreSQL host, port, username, password, and database name. Form a connection string in the format `postgres://user:password@host:port/dbname`. If your database uses TLS, you may also need a CA certificate path.

Export the connection string so the MCP server can find it at runtime. You can place this in your shell profile or pass it directly in the MCP client configuration.

export DATABASE_URL="postgres://myuser:mypassword@localhost:5432/mydb"

Run the server using npx to confirm it starts and connects successfully before wiring it into your MCP client. The `--transport stdio` flag is required for Claude Desktop integration.

npx --yes pg-mcp-server --transport stdio

Open your Claude Desktop (or other MCP client) configuration file and add the pg-mcp-server entry. Include the DATABASE_URL in the env block so the process receives it.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "postgres": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["--yes", "pg-mcp-server", "--transport", "stdio"],
      "env": {
        "DATABASE_URL": "postgres://myuser:mypassword@localhost:5432/mydb"
      }
    }
  }
}

By default the server may restrict write operations for safety. Set the `DANGEROUSLY_ALLOW_WRITE_OPS` environment variable to `true` to allow INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and DDL statements.

"env": {
  "DATABASE_URL": "postgres://...",
  "DANGEROUSLY_ALLOW_WRITE_OPS": "true"
}

Restart Claude Desktop or your MCP client. The postgres server should appear in the connected tools list. Try asking it to list your tables to confirm everything is working.