IBM watsonx BI remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) server

IBM watsonx BI remote MCP server is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) compliant service that seamlessly connects AI agents with data in watsonx BI, enabling intelligent data and insight retrieval.

A remote MCP server is hosted on IBM infrastructure and accessed over a network, making it easier to collaborate and reduces the need for manual setup and configuration.

Key features:

Access to the watsonx BI semantic layer: Access data grounded in the watsonx BI semantic layer and governed metric definitions.
Natural language interface: Query data in watsonx BI using natural language and receive responses with tabular data.

Capabilities

The remote MCP server exposes one static tool:

Tool name: QUERY_DATA
Description: Search for data and insights from your enterprise data warehouse
Requires: Question in natural language used as an input to the QUERY_DATA tool
Provides: Description, data, and SQL

Prerequisites

Before you use the remote MCP server, make sure that you have the following:

Valid access credentials (API key)

You must create a new API key. Do not use the API key that is automatically generated by watsonx BI.For information on how to create an API key, see Managing user API keys.
AI agent framework that supports the MCP protocol
A working environment of watsonx BI with:
- At least one project
- Enriched data assets
- AI model - Any large language model (LLM) with chain of thought reasoning

Connecting to the remote MCP Server

Use the following endpoint to connect your AI agent to the watsonx BI remote MCP server:

https://api.dataplatform.cloud.ibm.com/wxbi/v1/mcp

Example install command

You can use the following install command to quickly connect to the remote MCP server:

npx -y mcp-remote https://api.dataplatform.cloud.ibm.com/wxbi/v1/mcp --header x-api-key:<user-iam-account-api-key>

Or use this command:

"wxbi-mcp-server": {
   "command": "npx",
   "args": [
    "-y",
    "mcp-remote",
    "https://api.dataplatform.cloud.ibm.com/wxbi/v1/mcp",
    "--header",
    "x-api-key:<user-iam-account-api-key>",     
    "--header",
    "asset-id-list:<asset_id_1>@<project_id_1>@project_id,<asset_id_2>@<project_id_2>@project_id"
   ]
}

Headers (Optional)

You can scope the wxBI MCP Server to specific assets by adding additional headers:

project-id-list to scope to a list of data-platform project ids. (ex: project-id-list:<project_id1>,<project_id2>)
catalog-id-list to scope to a catalog id (ex: catalog-id-list:<catalog_id1>)
asset-id-list to scope to a list of ThreePartIds of data assets (ex:asset-Id-list:<asset_id1>@<project_id1>@project_id,<asset_id2>@<project_id1>@project_id,<asset_id2>@<catalog_id1>@catalog_id)

Header priority

: Priority 1: asset-id-list (cannot coexist with project-id-list or catalog-id-list): Priority 2: project-id-list and catalog-id-list (can be used together)

How to get the project and asset id

To get the project id:

Select View all projects from Navigation Menu > Projects.
Select the project and go to the Manage tab.
Copy the Project ID from the Details section.

To get the asset id for a data asset:

Select View all projects from Navigation Menu > Projects.
Select the project that contains the data asset and go to the Assets tab.
Select the data asset to open Preview asset.
Copy the portion of the URL that displays after /data-assets/.

For example, in the following URL:

https://dataplatform.cloud.ibm.com/projects/0a296520-3129-4526-9bff-d13830e50b5b/data-assets/4570c0bb-a414-4e97-b2fd-25b533e4ceed/preview

the asset ID is:

4570c0bb-a414-4e97-b2fd-25b533e4ceed

Integrating with IBM watsonx Orchestrate

The watsonx BI remote MCP server integrates with IBM watsonx Orchestrate. For more information, see the following:

Limitations of remote MCP Server

Supports business intelligence queries only; asset overview questions are not supported
Responses are textual and include tabular data only
Visualizations are not supported