Claude Desktop MCP Setup for Ask RITA

This guide shows how to add Ask RITA as an MCP server to Claude Desktop.

Quick Setup

Add this to your Claude Desktop MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "askrita": {
      "command": "askrita",
      "args": [
        "mcp",
        "--config",
        "/path/to/your/askrita-config.yaml"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Complete Example

1. Create your config file at /path/to/askrita-config.yaml:

   llm:
     provider: "openai"
     model: "gpt-4o"
     # API key is read from OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable
     # Set it with: export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
   
   database:
     type: "bigquery"
     connection_string: "bigquery://your-project/your-dataset"
   

2. Add to Claude Desktop config:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "askrita": {
         "command": "askrita", 
         "args": [
           "mcp",
           "--config",
           "/Users/yourname/askrita-config.yaml"
         ]
       }
     }
   }
   

3. Restart Claude Desktop

Available Tools

Once configured, Claude can use these tools:

• askrita_query: Ask natural language questions about your database
• askrita_test: Test your Ask RITA configuration

Example Usage in Claude

After setup, you can ask Claude:

"Use the askrita_query tool to find the top 10 customers by revenue"

Claude will call:

{
  "tool": "askrita_query",
  "arguments": {
    "question": "What are the top 10 customers by revenue?",
    "format": "json"
  }
}

Troubleshooting

If the MCP server doesn't start:

1. Check the command path:

   # Test if askrita command is available
   askrita --help
   
   # Test MCP subcommand
   askrita mcp --help
   

2. Test the config:

   askrita test --config /path/to/your/config.yaml
   

3. Check Claude Desktop logs for MCP connection errors

Configuration File Location

On macOS, Claude Desktop's config is usually at:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

That's it! Simple as adding a JSON config entry.