Claude Code & SQLcl MCP server
With around 20 years on the job, Matt is one of the most experienced software developers at Pretius. He likes meeting new people, traveling to conferences, and working on different projects.
He’s also a big sports fan (regularly watches Leeds United, Formula 1, and boxing), and not just as a spectator – he often starts his days on a mountain bike, to tune his mind.
First follow this guide to set up your working Claude Desktop & SQLcl MCP server.
You at least need to get to this screen showing sqlcl running as an MCP server
Claude Desktop and Claude Code do not share the same MCP servers; so you have to set this up manually.
In Claude Code run this;
! claude mcp add sqlcl "C:/Oracle/sqlcl/bin/sql" -- -R 0 -mcp
You can optionally add it to any of these 3 levels by changing the command above
| Scope | Available in | How to set |
|---|---|---|
| local | current projects only. | As above |
| project. | IE current project shared by Git. | --scope project |
| User | All your projects. | --scope user |
Optional - I don't think you need this - Add the env environment variables
Edit this filename
#windows
C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.claude.json
#mac
~/.claude.json
search for sqlcl in the folder you need. After the env parameters.
"env": {
"ORACLE_HOME": "C:/Oracle/sqlcl/",
"JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS": "-Djdk.net.unixdomain.tmpdir=C:\\Temp -Djava.io.tmpdir=C:\\Temp",
"JAVA_HOME": "C:\\Java\\jdk-21"
}
Important step because MCP servers are loaded on startup
quit
and then back into Claude.
claude
Then check its connected; run this.
! claude mcp list
and you'll see something like this - look out for sqlcl and ✓ connected
! claude mcp list
Checking MCP server health…
sqlcl: C:/Oracle/sqlcl/bin/sql -R 0 -mcp - ✓ Connected
You should now be able to form a connection (change the below connection name. It must be identical to the one you have stored in SQLcl or SQL Developer VS Code extension)
Connect to sqlcl MPC server localhost-docker-26aifree-tso
and it will show
❯ Connect to sqlcl MPC server localhost-docker-26aifree-tso
I'll load the SQLcl tool schemas and connect to that server.
Called sqlcl
Connected to localhost-docker-26aifree-tso — Oracle Database 23.26.1.0.0. Ready for queries.
✻ Crunched for 8s
Then you can test it 🍌🍎🍍
❯ Do I have any tables in this schema named after fruit 🍌🍎🍍?
Called sqlcl
No tables in this schema are named after fruit. The search covered common fruits (apple, banana, mango, orange, peach, etc.) and came up empty.
and again
❯ What boring tables do I have?
Called sqlcl
You have 3 tables:
- EMP — employee data (classic Oracle demo table)
- DEPT — department data (classic Oracle demo table)
- DBTOOLS$MCP_LOG — MCP query audit log (system table used to log queries made through this MCP connection)
you can ask for it which skills it has
❯ What skills does this MCP server have
Called sqlcl
The SQLcl MCP server provides 5 Oracle-maintained skills:
- apex — Oracle APEX application development
- db — Oracle Database (SQL, PL/SQL, SQLcl, ORDS, etc.)
- fusion — Oracle Fusion
- graal — GraalVM Native Image
- oci — Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
great you're all ready now to create some APEXLang applications.
ENJOY
What's the picture? It's the back exit of Leeds train station looking out to the canal. I was on my way to watch Leeds United smash Burnley - which they did! Visit Yorkshire
