Establishing a Connection
The CData Code Assist MCP for xBase defines each connection to xBase as a named configuration that an MCP Client (such as Claude Desktop) can use when sending natural language queries.
You create and manage these configurations using the CData Code Assist MCP Configuration Tool. The tool automatically handles formatting, storage, and registration with MCP clients.
Understanding Connection Configurations
Each connection configuration is stored in a .mcp file. This file includes the details needed to initialize the connector when an MCP Client starts a session.
- On Windows, configuration files are stored in "~/AppData/Roaming/CData/xBase Data Provider/".
- On macOS, configuration files are stored in "~/Library/Application Support/CData/xBase Data Provider/".
The .mcp file is a text file that contains a list of connection properties and a timestamp. For example:
#Tue May 20 15:48:40 EDT 2025 AuthScheme=Basic User=myUser Password=myPassword Security Token=myToken
The configuration tool handles these settings automatically. Each saved configuration enables an MCP client to launch a dedicated MCP server instance with the correct connector and options. Manual file editing is not required.
The DataSource property must be set to the name of the folder that contains the .dbf files. Specify the IncludeFiles property to work with xBase table files having extensions that differ from .dbf. Specify multiple extensions in a comma-separated list. Specify the CodePage property to set correct encoding for text fields in .dbf tables.