Claude Code

Add the server with claude mcp add. Options go before the server name, and the launch command follows --:

claude mcp add --env DBMCP_DB_BACKEND=mysql --env DBMCP_DB_HOST=127.0.0.1 \
  --env DBMCP_DB_USER=root --env DBMCP_DB_PASSWORD=secret --env DBMCP_DB_NAME=mydb \
  --transport stdio --scope user dbmcp -- dbmcp

Keep another option, such as --transport stdio, between the last --env and the name: otherwise --env reads the name as another KEY=value pair. --scope is local (default, this project only), project (writes .mcp.json), or user (all projects).

To share the server with your team, commit a .mcp.json and let each developer supply the password from their own environment with ${VAR} expansion:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dbmcp": {
      "command": "dbmcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "DBMCP_DB_BACKEND": "mysql",
        "DBMCP_DB_USER": "root",
        "DBMCP_DB_PASSWORD": "${DBMCP_DB_PASSWORD}",
        "DBMCP_DB_NAME": "mydb"
      }
    }
  }
}

For a server you started with DBMCP_TRANSPORT=http:

claude mcp add --transport http dbmcp http://127.0.0.1:9001/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer $DBMCP_TOKEN"