[ Confirm upstream transport MCP ]

How to Use Alation MCP Server with Bifrost

Unlock the power of the enterprise Data Catalog by harnessing tools provided by the Alation MCP server.

[ MCP SERVER SUMMARY ]

Alation MCP server summary

Unlock the power of the enterprise Data Catalog by harnessing tools provided by the Alation MCP server. Connect Alation through Bifrost MCP Gateway to centralize access control, virtual keys, and tool-call observability for your AI assistants.

Property	Details
Company	Upstream maintainer
Connection type	Confirm upstream transport
Authentication	Varies by upstream server
Package or endpoint	See upstream documentation
Capabilities	Alation tools over MCP, AI assistant connectivity, Governed tool access through Bifrost
Official documentation	Alation MCP documentation

Before you start

Review the Alation upstream documentation for its installation requirements
Obtain any credentials required by the upstream service
A running Bifrost MCP Gateway instance

What you can do with Alation

Unlock the power of the enterprise Data Catalog by harnessing tools provided by the Alation MCP server.
Expose Alation tools to Claude, Cursor, and other MCP clients through one endpoint
Apply virtual keys, tool allowlists, and audit logging at the gateway

MCP ServerIntegration

[ HOW TO CONNECT ]

Connect Alation to Bifrost in three steps

Install Bifrost

Start the gateway locally or deploy in your VPC.

npx -y @maximhq/bifrost

Add Alation in MCP Gateway

Open MCP Gateway in the Bifrost dashboard, click New MCP Server, and select the transport documented by the upstream server. Or register via the API below.

• Confirm the transport, command or endpoint, and authentication requirements in the Alation upstream documentation.

• Replace every placeholder in the example before sending the request.

Point clients at Bifrost /mcp

Configure Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Claude Code to use your Bifrost endpoint with a virtual key instead of connecting directly to Alation.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bifrost": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8080/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer vk_your_virtual_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

[ EXAMPLE CONFIG ]

Register Alation via API

Add this MCP client with a POST to /api/mcp/client. See Connecting to MCP Servers for full options.

# For a remote HTTP or SSE server:
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/mcp/client \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "alation",
    "connection_type": "<http|sse>",
    "connection_string": "<upstream MCP endpoint>",
    "tools_to_execute": ["*"]
  }'

# For a local STDIO server:
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/mcp/client \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "alation",
    "connection_type": "stdio",
    "stdio_config": {
      "command": "<upstream command>",
      "args": ["<arg>"]
    },
    "tools_to_execute": ["*"]
  }'

[ WHY BIFROST ]

Run Alation through one governed gateway

Access control

Virtual keys, RBAC, and tool allowlists per team or agent.

Cost governance

Attribute MCP tool spend alongside LLM usage in one view.

Observability

Log every tool call with latency, server, and virtual key metadata.

Credential isolation

Upstream secrets stay in the gateway — not on every laptop.

[ FAQ ]

Common questions

What does the Alation MCP server do?

Unlock the power of the enterprise Data Catalog by harnessing tools provided by the Alation MCP server. The exact tools available depend on the upstream server version and configuration.

How do I connect Alation to Bifrost?

Check the upstream documentation to determine whether Alation uses STDIO, Streamable HTTP, or SSE. Then add it as an MCP client in Bifrost using the corresponding command or endpoint.