Anthropic MCP Connector :: ShardingSphere

Anthropic MCP Connector

This page explains how to connect an already running ShardingSphere-MCP HTTP Server through the Anthropic MCP Connector in the Messages API. ShardingSphere-MCP is the Apache ShardingSphere MCP Server that exposes database metadata access, controlled SQL queries, and database governance capabilities to MCP-capable AI clients and platforms.

Applicable Scenarios

Use this page when you want to attach a remote ShardingSphere-MCP server directly in the Anthropic Messages API without implementing a separate MCP client.
Use this integration when Claude API requests should expose ShardingSphere-MCP tools for metadata queries, controlled queries, rule planning, and preflight validation.
After integration, Claude can inspect logic databases, inspect table structures, or call database_gateway_validate_proxy_connectivity for preflight validation against configured runtime databases.

Prerequisites

Start the HTTP MCP Server by following Quick Start.
Expose only a secured remote HTTPS endpoint that the Anthropic Messages API can reach. The built-in ShardingSphere-MCP HTTP Server does not provide authentication or authorization.
For remote platform access, place ShardingSphere-MCP behind a trusted gateway or reverse proxy that provides TLS termination, authentication, authorization policy, network access control, and audit logs. See Deployment and Configuration for the security boundary.
The secured remote endpoint supports Streamable HTTP or SSE.
Prepare an Anthropic API key.
The current MCP Connector version requires the request header anthropic-beta: mcp-client-2025-11-20.
If the secured remote endpoint or gateway requires OAuth or Bearer authentication, prepare an access token that can be passed as authorization_token.

Integration Steps

Configure the integration

In a Messages API request, declare ShardingSphere-MCP in mcp_servers first, then add the matching mcp_toolset in the tools array. A minimal example is:

curl https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messages \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  -H "anthropic-version: 2023-06-01" \
  -H "anthropic-beta: mcp-client-2025-11-20" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5",
    "max_tokens": 1024,
    "messages": [
      {
        "role": "user",
        "content": "Use ShardingSphere-MCP to inspect the tables in the logic database."
      }
    ],
    "mcp_servers": [
      {
        "type": "url",
        "url": "https://example.com/mcp",
        "name": "shardingsphere"
      }
    ],
    "tools": [
      {
        "type": "mcp_toolset",
        "mcp_server_name": "shardingsphere"
      }
    ]
  }'

If the secured remote endpoint or gateway requires OAuth or Bearer authentication, add this field to the mcp_servers entry:

"authorization_token": "YOUR_TOKEN"

To expose only a subset of tools, use default_config and configs in the mcp_toolset as an allowlist or denylist. For example, disable everything by default and enable only a small subset:

{
  "type": "mcp_toolset",
  "mcp_server_name": "shardingsphere",
  "default_config": {
    "enabled": false
  },
  "configs": {
    "database_gateway_search_metadata": {
      "enabled": true
    },
    "database_gateway_validate_proxy_connectivity": {
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Verify the integration

Recognition succeeds when:

Start with a minimal request to confirm that mcp_servers and mcp_toolset are correctly paired and do not trigger validation errors for mismatched server names or dangling toolsets.

Invocation succeeds when:

In a Claude conversation, run a minimal validation task such as:
- Show the tables in <logic-database>.
- Show columns and indexes for the orders table.
- Call database_gateway_validate_proxy_connectivity for a configured runtime database.
If Claude returns tool results from ShardingSphere-MCP, the integration is working.

If the integration fails, check these items first:

Confirm that the request includes the anthropic-beta: mcp-client-2025-11-20 header.
Confirm that the name in mcp_servers exactly matches mcp_server_name in the mcp_toolset.
Confirm that the remote address is a secured HTTPS MCP endpoint reachable from Anthropic, not a local 127.0.0.1 address or a directly exposed unauthenticated built-in HTTP Server.

Notes

The Anthropic MCP Connector currently supports remote HTTP MCP Servers only. It does not connect to local STDIO processes.
The platform integration currently supports tool calls only. It does not expose the full MCP resource surface.
By default, mcp_toolset enables all tools exposed by the remote MCP Server. For read-only assistants or controlled trial environments, explicitly disable write-oriented tools that are not needed.
This feature currently requires the anthropic-beta: mcp-client-2025-11-20 header. If Anthropic updates the beta version, update the documentation and the request configuration together.
This page covers the Anthropic platform API path only. For Claude Code CLI integration, use Claude Code.
See the Capability Catalog for the supported task surface and usage boundaries.

References

Official references

MCP connector