The semantics are the point: query-datasource runs through VizQL against a published data source, so an answer inherits the joins, calculations and field definitions your team curated rather than the model's guess at them. The administrative half is built with the right amount of suspicion — off unless a flag says otherwise, restricted to site admins, and every mutation split into a preview that returns a token and an apply that spends it. The prompts follow the same shape, with an inform step before an apply step.
Tableau's own MCP server for Tableau Cloud and Server. It lets an agent browse what is published on a site, query a data source through the VizQL Data Service so answers inherit the curated model, read Pulse metrics, and — for administrators — act on users, refresh tasks and stale content.
- Ask questions of curated data — query-datasource runs against a published data source, with get-datasource-metadata and list-datasources describing what is there first
- Find things — search-content across everything published, plus list-projects, list-workbooks and get-workbook
- Get data and pictures out of views — list-views, get-view-data, get-view-image, and list-custom-views with get-custom-view-data and get-custom-view-image
- Tableau Prep flows — list-flows, get-flow, list-flow-runs and list-flow-tasks
- Pulse, seven tools deep — list-all-pulse-metric-definitions, list-pulse-metric-definitions-from-definition-ids, list-pulse-metrics-from-metric-definition-id, list-pulse-metrics-from-metric-ids, list-pulse-metric-subscriptions, and insight bundles covering period-over-period change and top and bottom contributors
- Administration, behind a flag — list-users and update-user, list-jobs, list-extract-refresh-tasks and update-cloud-extract-refresh-task, query-admin-insights, get-stale-content-report and delete-content
- Mutations are two-phase: update-user previews the change and hands back a single-use confirmation token, and only a second call carrying that token applies it
- Six prompts that chain the tools into a job — stale-content-cleanup, job-optimization, extract-optimization and user-license-reclamation, each with an inform step before any apply step
A Tableau Cloud or Server site. The managed service at https://mcp.tableau.com is the recommended path for Cloud: it uses OAuth 2.1, so each person signs in as themselves and their existing permissions apply without further configuration. Running it yourself needs Node.js 22.7.5 or later and four environment variables — SERVER, SITE_NAME, PAT_NAME and PAT_VALUE — carrying the site URL and a personal access token. The administrative tools are not registered unless ADMIN_TOOLS_ENABLED is set, and they additionally require the caller to be a site administrator. Individual tools request narrow Tableau API scopes rather than blanket access.
One command plus a key — npx -y @tableau/mcp-server@latest, then supply credentials