
Whether itâs answering questions, automating tasks, or driving business decisions, modern data teams are embracing AI assistants to move faster. But these tools often fall short when it comes to context.
AI agents donât know where your trusted data lives. They canât trace relationships across assets or understand how changes will ripple through your stack. Without access to metadata, theyâre unable to support the complex, interconnected decisions that data teams make every day.
As organizations scale, they donât just need AI thatâs powerful, they need AI thatâs deeply context-aware.
Thatâs why we built the Atlan MCP Server: to bring structured, secure metadata context directly to your AI agents and unlock smarter, more scalable decision-making.
Table of Contents
What is the Atlan MCP?
The Atlan MCP Server is a powerful new way to bring AI into your metadata workflows, without sacrificing control or context.
Built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), it gives your favorite AI tools, like Claude, Cursor, or your own copilots, the ability to interact with Atlan like a human would. Think of it as giving your AI assistant a set of functions it can call, so it knows how to search, filter, and analyze metadata on demand.
If youâve never encountered MCP before, hereâs a quick primer: MCP is an open standard that lets AI agents communicate with software systems through structured function calls. It standardizes how agents talk to tools. So instead of guessing, your AI knows exactly how to ask questions and take action.
For example, you could ask:
- âWhat are our top 10 certified data sources for revenue analysis?â
- âWhich columns were updated last week in the churn dashboard?â
- âShow me all assets connected to our customer satisfaction score.â
With Atlan MCP, your agent can answer these questions in seconds. It queries your catalog, understands lineage, and applies filters, just like an expert data steward would.
This is a major step in our journey toward an AI-native data experience, where AI isnât just layered on top of your tools, but embedded in the way your organization discovers, governs, and activates data.
What Can AI Agents Do with Atlan MCP?
Once connected to the Atlan MCP Server, your AI agent becomes metadata-aware: able to search, analyze, and reason through your catalog just like a seasoned data expert. Hereâs what that looks like in action:
Search assets like a pro
Your agent can search across all metadata, by keyword, description, certification status, modification date, and more. It can filter by asset type, return specific fields, and sort or paginate results in seconds.
Try asking:
- âWhat customer data do we have thatâs certified and updated weekly?â
- âWhich tables feed into our marketing ROI model?â
- âFind all assets tagged with âchurnâ modified in the last 7 days.â
Behind the scenes, the agent uses the search_assets tool to query Atlanâs catalog, saving time and delivering precise answers instantly.
Run advanced filters with DSL
For deeper queries, agents can use Atlanâs Domain Specific Language (DSL) to filter, score, and rank results. This is ideal for similarity searches, multi-condition filtering, or prioritizing results by business impact.
Try asking:
- âWhich data assets are most similar to our churn model?â
- âFind all assets with names containing ârevenueâ that are uncertified and used in more than one dashboard.â
- âWhat are the top 5 tables by query volume this month?â
These kinds of nuanced searches go beyond whatâs possible in most catalogsâand give your AI assistant the power to surface the most relevant assets quickly.
Understand lineage and impact
With the traverse_lineage tool, your agent can trace upstream and downstream relationships across your data stack. It can explore dependencies, flag risk, and even simulate impact.
Try asking:
- âShow me every dashboard that depends on the customer_lifetime_value column.â
- âWhat downstream assets would be impacted if I updated the product_sku column?â
- âCompare lineage paths for our sales vs. returns KPIs.â
For example, a data engineer preparing to change a column could ask: âWhat dashboards or models depend on this field?â The agent returns a map of every affected downstream asset, helping prevent breakages and ensure smooth rollouts.
Monitor quality and trust at scale
Agents can be configured to run proactive checks, like scanning for missing descriptions, outdated certifications, or undocumented assets.
Try asking:
- âWhich Snowflake tables are missing a description?â
- âFind all columns tagged as PII that havenât been reviewed in the last 30 days.â
- âWhich Looker dashboards are powered by uncertified data?â
Instead of waiting for quality issues to be flagged downstream, your agent surfaces them early, keeping your catalog clean and your data trustworthy.

How to Set Up Atlan MCP?
You can deploy the Atlan MCP Server with any AI client that supports MCP. Use the following configuration to get started:
{
"mcpServers": {
"atlan": {
"command": "docker",
"args": [
"run",
"-i",
"--rm",
"-e",
"ATLAN_API_KEY=<YOUR_API_KEY>",
"-e",
"ATLAN_BASE_URL=https://<YOUR_INSTANCE>.atlan.com",
"-e",
"ATLAN_AGENT_ID=<YOUR_AGENT_ID>",
"ghcr.io/atlanhq/atlan-mcp-server:latest"
]
}
}
}
For full setup instructions, see the Atlan MCP Server README on GitHub.
Why This Matters
The Atlan MCP Server brings structured, AI-ready access to your metadata. It allows AI agents to act with context and precision, whether theyâre surfacing data assets, tracing lineage, or monitoring quality.
For teams building AI tools or enabling automation across the data stack, this opens up a new level of control and scalability. By making your metadata accessible through a standardized protocol, you reduce time spent on manual lookups and empower both technical and non-technical users to make better decisions, faster.
Whatâs Next
This launch is just the beginning. The Atlan MCP Server is a foundational step in our journey toward an AI-native future, where intelligent agents arenât just bolted onto data workflows, but deeply embedded in how we discover, govern, and activate data.
We’re actively expanding the MCP Server with additional tools, deeper integrations, and broader support for the AI builder ecosystem. Our goal is to make it even easier for agents to work across your entire data stack, bringing metadata context to wherever your decisions are being made.
Weâre inviting you to explore whatâs possible. Whether youâre building an AI agent, experimenting with intelligent copilots, or embedding metadata into everyday decision-making, weâd love to partner with you on what comes next.
Your ideas will help shape this journey. Create a feature request directly in the GitHub repository. We canât wait to see what you come up with.
Atlan MCP Resources
Get Support
For help getting set up or to share feedback, reach out to your Atlan Customer Success Manager (CSM) or Customer Solutions Architect (CSA).
For technical assistance along the way, weâre always ready to help at [email protected].