Quickstart (MCP with Looker and Gemini-CLI)

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/v0.18.0/$OS/toolbox
   

2. Make the binary executable:

   chmod +x toolbox
   

3. Edit the file ~/.gemini/settings.json and add the following to the list of mcpServers. Use the Client Id and Client Secret you obtained earlier. The name of the server - here looker-toolbox - can be anything meaningful to you.

      "mcpServers": {
        "looker-toolbox": {
          "command": "/path/to/toolbox",
          "args": [
            "--stdio",
            "--prebuilt",
            "looker"
          ],
          "env": {
            "LOOKER_BASE_URL": "https://looker.example.com",
            "LOOKER_CLIENT_ID": "",
            "LOOKER_CLIENT_SECRET": "",
            "LOOKER_VERIFY_SSL": "true"
          }
        }
      }
   

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

Step 3: Start Gemini-CLI

1. Run Gemini-CLI:

   npx https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli
   

2. Type y when it asks to download.

3. Log into Gemini-CLI

4. Enter the command /mcp and you should see a list of available tools like

    ℹ Configured MCP servers:
   
      🟢 looker-toolbox - Ready (10 tools)
        - looker-toolbox__get_models
        - looker-toolbox__query
        - looker-toolbox__get_looks
        - looker-toolbox__get_measures
        - looker-toolbox__get_filters
        - looker-toolbox__get_parameters
        - looker-toolbox__get_explores
        - looker-toolbox__query_sql
        - looker-toolbox__get_dimensions
        - looker-toolbox__run_look
        - looker-toolbox__query_url
   

5. Start exploring your Looker instance with commands like Find an explore to see orders or show me my current inventory broken down by item category.

6. Gemini will prompt you for your approval before using a tool. You can approve all the tools at once or one at a time.