Quickstart (MCP with Looker)

Overview

Model Context Protocol is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to LLMs. Check out this page on how to connect to Toolbox via MCP.

Step 1: Get a Looker Client ID and Client Secret

The Looker Client ID and Client Secret can be obtained from the Users page of your Looker instance. Refer to the documentation here. You may need to ask an administrator to get the Client ID and Client Secret for you.

Step 2: Install and configure Toolbox

In this section, we will download Toolbox and run the Toolbox server.

1. Download the latest version of Toolbox as a binary:

   Tip

   Select the correct binary corresponding to your OS and CPU architecture.

   export OS="linux/amd64" # one of linux/amd64, darwin/arm64, darwin/amd64, or windows/amd64
   curl -O https://storage.googleapis.com/genai-toolbox/v0.14.0/$OS/toolbox
   

2. Make the binary executable:

   chmod +x toolbox
   

3. Create a file looker_env with the settings for your Looker instance. Use the Client ID and Client Secret you obtained earlier.

    export LOOKER_BASE_URL=https://looker.example.com
    export LOOKER_VERIFY_SSL=true
    export LOOKER_CLIENT_ID=Q7ynZkRkvj9S9FHPm4Wj
    export LOOKER_CLIENT_SECRET=P5JvZstFnhpkhCYy2yNSfJ6x
   

   In some instances you may need to append :19999 to the LOOKER_BASE_URL.

4. Load the looker_env file into your environment.

   source looker_env
   

5. Run the Toolbox server using the prebuilt Looker tools.

   ./toolbox --prebuilt looker
   

Step 3: Connect to MCP Inspector

1. Run the MCP Inspector:

   npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector
   

2. Type y when it asks to install the inspector package.

3. It should show the following when the MCP Inspector is up and running:

   🔍 MCP Inspector is up and running at http://127.0.0.1:5173 🚀
   

4. Open the above link in your browser.

5. For Transport Type, select SSE.

6. For URL, type in http://127.0.0.1:5000/mcp/sse.

7. Click Connect.

   

8. Select List Tools, you will see a list of tools.

   

9. Test out your tools here!