Rube MCP must be connected (RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS available)
Active connection via RUBE_MANAGE_CONNECTIONS with toolkit metabase
A Metabase instance connected to your BigQuery data source
Always call RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS first to get current tool schemas
Setup
Get Rube MCP: Add https://rube.app/mcp as an MCP server in your client configuration. No API keys needed — just add the endpoint and it works.
Verify Rube MCP is available by confirming RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS responds
Call RUBE_MANAGE_CONNECTIONS with toolkit metabase
If connection is not ACTIVE, follow the returned auth link to complete setup
Confirm connection status shows ACTIVE before running any workflows
Note: BigQuery data is accessed through Metabase, a business intelligence tool that connects to BigQuery as a data source. The tools below execute queries and retrieve metadata through Metabase's API.
Core Workflows
1. Run a Native SQL Query
Use METABASE_POST_API_DATASET with type native to execute raw SQL queries against your BigQuery database.
Tool: METABASE_POST_API_DATASET
Parameters:
- database (required): Metabase database ID (integer)
- type (required): "native" for SQL queries
- native (required): Object with "query" string
- query: Raw SQL string (e.g., "SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 10")
- template_tags: Parameterized query variables (optional)
- constraints: { "max-results": 1000 } (optional)
2. Run a Structured MBQL Query
Use METABASE_POST_API_DATASET with type query for Metabase Query Language queries with built-in aggregation and filtering.
Tool: METABASE_POST_API_DATASET
Parameters:
- database (required): Metabase database ID
- type (required): "query" for MBQL
- query (required): Object with:
- source-table: Table ID (integer)
- aggregation: e.g., [["count"]] or [["sum", ["field", 5, null]]]
- breakout: Group-by fields
- filter: Filter conditions
- limit: Max rows
- order-by: Sort fields
3. Get Query Metadata
Use METABASE_POST_API_DATASET_QUERY_METADATA to retrieve metadata about databases, tables, and fields available for querying.
Tool: METABASE_POST_API_DATASET_QUERY_METADATA
Parameters:
- database (required): Metabase database ID
- type (required): "query" or "native"
- query (required): Query object (e.g., {"source-table": 1})
4. Convert Query to Native SQL
Use METABASE_POST_API_DATASET_NATIVE to convert an MBQL query into its native SQL representation.
Tool: METABASE_POST_API_DATASET_NATIVE
Parameters:
- database (required): Metabase database ID
- type (required): "native"
- native (required): Object with "query" and optional "template_tags"
- parameters: Query parameter values (optional)
5. List Available Databases
Use METABASE_GET_API_DATABASE to discover all database connections configured in Metabase.
Tool: METABASE_GET_API_DATABASE
Description: Retrieves a list of all Database instances configured in Metabase.
Note: Call RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS to get the full schema for this tool.
6. Get Database Schema Metadata
Use METABASE_GET_API_DATABASE_ID_METADATA to retrieve complete table and field information for a specific database.
Tool: METABASE_GET_API_DATABASE_ID_METADATA
Description: Retrieves complete metadata for a specific database including
all tables and fields.
Note: Call RUBE_SEARCH_TOOLS to get the full schema for this tool.
Common Patterns
Discover then query: Use METABASE_GET_API_DATABASE to find database IDs, then METABASE_GET_API_DATABASE_ID_METADATA to explore tables and fields, then METABASE_POST_API_DATASET to run queries.
SQL-first approach: Use METABASE_POST_API_DATASET with type: "native" and write standard SQL queries for maximum flexibility.
Parameterized queries: Use template_tags in native queries for safe parameterization (e.g., SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = {{user_id}}).
Schema exploration: Use METABASE_POST_API_DATASET_QUERY_METADATA to understand table structures before building complex queries.
Get parameter values: Use METABASE_POST_API_DATASET_PARAMETER_VALUES to retrieve possible values for filter dropdowns.
Known Pitfalls
The database parameter is a Metabase-internal integer ID, not the BigQuery project or dataset name. Use METABASE_GET_API_DATABASE to find valid database IDs first.
source-table in MBQL queries is also a Metabase-internal integer, not the BigQuery table name. Discover table IDs via metadata tools.
Native SQL queries use BigQuery SQL dialect (Standard SQL). Ensure your syntax is BigQuery-compatible.
max-results in constraints defaults can limit returned rows. Set explicitly for large result sets.
Responses from METABASE_POST_API_DATASET contain results nested under data -- parse carefully as the structure may be deeply nested.
Metabase field IDs used in MBQL aggregation, breakout, and filter arrays must be integers obtained from metadata responses.
