Powerdrill

Powerdrill MCP Server lets you authenticate with Powerdrill and run data analysis tasks against your datasets from MCP-enabled clients. It provides dataset listing, detailed dataset information, and the ability to create and run natural-language data questions directly against your Powerdrill data. Use MCP clients like Claude Desktop or Cursor to interact with your data through simple prompts and commands.

How to use

To use the Powerdrill MCP Server, connect with an MCP client and provide your credentials. Once connected, you can list your datasets, inspect dataset details, upload data sources, create and run analytic jobs with natural language questions, manage sessions, and retrieve results. Use natural language prompts to ask questions about your datasets, such as summaries, trends, or top items by a metric. You can also upload local files as data sources to existing datasets and organize your work into sessions for grouped analysis.

Typical workflows include: listing datasets, selecting a dataset to inspect, creating a data source from a local file, starting an analysis job with a natural-language prompt, and reviewing the produced results. You can create sessions to group related jobs and keep track of ongoing analysis. Each data source, dataset, and job is tracked within your Powerdrill account and surfaced through the MCP interface.

How to install

Prerequisites You need a Powerdrill account with valid credentials (User ID and API Key). Install Node.js and npm on your machine if you plan to run the MCP server locally.

# Install globally and run via npx (recommended for quick setup)
npm install -g @powerdrillai/powerdrill-mcp
npx @powerdrillai/powerdrill-mcp

# Or run directly with npx without global install
npx @powerdrillai/powerdrill-mcp

Additional setup and configuration

Set your credentials in the environment before starting the server. You can use a shell environment or a .env file to provide the necessary values.

# Set environment variables
export POWERDRILL_USER_ID="your_user_id"
export POWERDRILL_PROJECT_API_KEY="your_project_api_key"

# Start the MCP server
powerdrill-mcp

Security and credentials

Keep your User ID and API Key secure. Do not share these credentials in logs or screenshots. Use environment variables or a secure secret manager to inject credentials at runtime.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues, verify that your environment variables are set correctly and that the MCP server starts without errors. Check that your MCP client is configured to point to the correct command and that the required credentials are provided.

Notes

The server is designed to integrate with Claude Desktop and Cursor as MCP clients. Ensure your client configuration uses the provided commands and environment variables to establish a connection.

Available tools

mcp_powerdrill_list_datasets

Lists available datasets in your Powerdrill account with an optional limit.

mcp_powerdrill_get_dataset_overview

Fetches detailed overview information for a specific dataset by its ID.

mcp_powerdrill_create_job

Creates a job to analyze data using a natural language question against a chosen dataset.

mcp_powerdrill_create_session

Creates a new session to group related jobs for organized data analysis.

mcp_powerdrill_list_data_sources

Lists data sources inside a specific dataset, with pagination and optional status filtering.

mcp_powerdrill_list_sessions

Lists user sessions for data analysis projects.

mcp_powerdrill_create_dataset

Creates a new dataset in your Powerdrill account.

mcp_powerdrill_create_data_source_from_local_file

Uploads a local file as a new data source in a dataset.