Yep. Having MCP is cool and drawing our implementation from experiences and usage of other MCP servers out there is even cooler (especially that we can have some insights how people already use them with Airflow) - if we can bring together a few of those, put some nice, relevant Airflow prompts. Ideally we could have some examples of how MCP can be used taken from those who are using airflow (the debugging example by Avi is cool)
I am not sure implementing it as provider is really "the way" though - I would rather see `apache-airflow-mcp" separate repo - it's so different and distinct from airflow it does not really require any of Airflow internals and code to be implemented - it makes very little sense to be the part of airflow "workspace" where we would develop it together with airflow - because if it will talk over the REST api, all we need is the `client` that might be just a dependency. And there is even no reason for MCP and airflow to be installed and developed together (that's the main reason why we want providers to be kept in monorepo. J. On Thu, May 29, 2025 at 8:37 AM Amogh Desai <amoghdesai....@gmail.com> wrote: > Seems like a promising area to invest in given the benefits it can provide > to > the users as mentioned by Shahar and Abhishek. > > Abhishek also has a promising talk submitted which i am looking forward to > this year at the summit. > > In any case, this seems to be one of the first of the very few > implementations of trying > to integrate Airflow officially / unofficially with an MCP server. > > Thanks & Regards, > Amogh Desai > > > On Thu, May 29, 2025 at 2:56 AM Aaron Dantley <aarondant...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > Hey! > > > > I also think this is a great idea! > > > > Would it be possible to be included in the development process? > > > > Sorry I’m new to this group, but would appreciate any suggestions on how > to > > contribute to the MCP server development! > > > > Regards! > > Aaron > > > > On Wed, May 28, 2025 at 2:57 PM Avi <a...@astronomer.io.invalid> wrote: > > > > > Nice to see the idea to incorporate an official MCP server for > > > Airflow. It's been really magical to see what a simple LLM can do with > an > > > Airflow MCP server built just from APIs. > > > > > > A few things that I noticed in my experience: > > > - The number of tools that the OpenAPI spec generates is quite huge. > Most > > > tools (*Claude, VS Code with GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf*) which > > uses > > > mcp-client limits it to a number of 100 tools. (*The read-only mode > > creates > > > less tools in comparison*.) > > > - MCP server are just not tools. There are other things as well, like > > > resources and prompts. Prompts are super helpful in case of debugging > for > > > example. It is a way of teaching LLM about Airflow. Say I want to have > a > > > failing task investigated. A prompt can be helpful in letting LLM know > a > > > step-by-step process of carrying out the investigation. > > > - Where do you run the MCP server? I wouldn't want my laptop to do the > > > heavy processing, which would want us to go for the SSE instead of > stdio. > > > > > > This is why I chose two different path of using mcp server with > airflow, > > > which I intend to talk about at the summit. > > > > > > 1. AI-Augmented Airflow - This helped me add a chat interface inside > > > Airflow using a plugin to talk to an Airflow instance (read only mode). > > > > > > 2. Airflow-Powered AI - Experimenting with this has been totally > magical, > > > how powerful AI can become when it has access to airflow. Also, a > > directory > > > structure to maintain the DAGs, and it can write DAGs on the fly. I > > totally > > > see a need where LLMs eventually will need a scheduler, although a > > complete > > > airflow just for an LLM might seem a bit overkill to the rest of the > > > community. > > > > > > I chose to build this on top of open API is because that was the only > way > > > to get proper RBAC enabled. > > > > > > I have so many points to discuss. Would love to hear from the community > > and > > > then take it forward. > > > > > > Thanks, > > > Avi > > > > > > > > > > > > On Wed, May 28, 2025 at 6:32 PM Aritra Basu <aritrabasu1...@gmail.com> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > I definitely think there's potential to interact with an airflow MCP > > > > server. Though I think I'd be interested to see how many and how > > > frequently > > > > people are making use of MCP servers in the wild before investing > > effort > > > in > > > > building and maintaining one for airflow. I'm sure the data is > > available > > > > out there, just needs finding. > > > > -- > > > > Regards, > > > > Aritra Basu > > > > > > > > On Wed, 28 May 2025, 11:18 pm Julian LaNeve, > > > <jul...@astronomer.io.invalid > > > > > > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > I think this would be interesting now that the Streamable HTTP > spec < > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-03-26/basic/transports> > > > > > is out. I think in theory we could publish this first as an Airflow > > > > > provider that installs a plugin to expose an MCP endpoint, as a > PoC - > > > > this > > > > > becomes a much nicer experience than a local stdio one. > > > > > -- > > > > > Julian LaNeve > > > > > CTO > > > > > > > > > > Email: jul...@astronomer.io > > > > > <mailto:jul...@astronomer.io>Mobile: 330 509 5792 > > > > > > > > > > > On May 28, 2025, at 1:25 PM, Shahar Epstein <sha...@apache.org> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > Dear community, > > > > > > > > > > > > Following the thread on Slack [1], initiated by Jason Sebastian > > > Kusuma, > > > > > I'd > > > > > > like to start an effort to officially support MCP in Airflow's > > > > codebase. > > > > > > > > > > > > *Some background * > > > > > > Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard, open-source > > > framework > > > > > > that standardizes the way AI models like LLM integrate and share > > data > > > > > with > > > > > > external tools, systems and data sources. Think of it as a "USB-C > > for > > > > > AI" - > > > > > > a universal connector that simplifies and standardizes AI > > > > integrations. A > > > > > > notable example of an MCP server is GitHub's official > > implementation > > > > > [3], which > > > > > > allows LLMs such as Claude, Copilot, and OpenAI (or: "MCP > clients") > > > to > > > > > > fetch pull request details, analyze code changes, and generate > > review > > > > > > summaries. > > > > > > > > > > > > *How could an MCP server be useful in Airflow?* > > > > > > Imagine the possibilities when LLMs can seamlessly interact with > > > > > Airflow’s > > > > > > API: triggering DAGs using natural language, retrieving DAG run > > > > history, > > > > > > enabling smart debugging, and more. This kind of integration > opens > > > the > > > > > door > > > > > > to a more intuitive, conversational interface for workflow > > > > orchestration. > > > > > > > > > > > > *Why do we need to support it officially?* > > > > > > Quid pro quo - LLMs become an integral part of the modern > > development > > > > > > experience, while Airflow evolves into the go-to for > orchestrating > > AI > > > > > > workflows. By officially supporting it, we’ll enable multiple > users > > > to > > > > > > interact with Airflow through their LLMs, streamlining automation > > and > > > > > > improving accessibility across diverse workflows. All of that is > > > viable > > > > > > with relatively small development effort (see next paragraph). > > > > > > > > > > > > *How should it be implemented?* > > > > > > As of today, there have been several implementations of MCP > servers > > > for > > > > > > Airflow API, the most visible one [4] made by Abhishek Bhakat > from > > > > > > Astronomer. > > > > > > The efforts of implementing it and maintaining it in our codebase > > > > > shouldn't > > > > > > be too cumbersome (at least in theory), as we could utilize > > packages > > > > like > > > > > > fastmcp to auto-generate the server using the existing OpenAPI > > specs. > > > > I'd > > > > > > be very happy if Abhishek could share his experience in this > > thread. > > > > > > > > > > > > *Where else could we utilize MCP?* > > > > > > Beyond the scope of the public API, I could also imagine using it > > to > > > > > > communicate with Breeze. > > > > > > > > > > > > *How do we proceed from here?* > > > > > > Feel free to share your thoughts here in this discussion. > > > > > > If there are no objections, I'll be happy to start working on an > > AIP. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Sincerely, > > > > > > Shahar Epstein > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > *References:* > > > > > > [1] Slack discussion, > > > > > > > > > > > > https://apache-airflow.slack.com/archives/C06K9Q5G2UA/p1746121916951569 > > > > > > [2] Introducing the model context protocol, > > > > > > https://www.anthropic.com/news/model-context-protocol > > > > > > [3] GitHub Official MCP server, > > > > > https://github.com/github/github-mcp-server > > > > > > [4] Unofficial MCP Server made by Abhishek Hakat, > > > > > > https://github.com/abhishekbhakat/airflow-mcp-server > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
