AI database design

Design databases with AI over MCP

DB Planner runs a hosted MCP server, so an AI assistant like Claude or Cursor can design your database with you. It reads and edits the same DBML documents and ER diagram your team sees, with access you approve once in the browser.

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Free plan, no card needed.

Set it up in a minute

Add one URL to your MCP client, sign in when it asks, and choose read or read-and-write access. Nothing to install, no key to paste.

1
Add the server

Run one command in Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http db-planner https://api.dbplanner.io/mcp

or add it to your .mcp.json:
.mcp.json
```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "db-planner": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.dbplanner.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}
```
2
Approve once in the browser

Sign in and choose the access you grant. Read and write are separate scopes, enforced on the server.
3
Ask it to design

The agent works with your real tables, not a copy.

What the assistant can do

Find its way around. List your organizations, projects, and documents, and summarise what a project contains without reading every file.
Design the schema. Create and edit DBML documents, or hand it a SQL dump, which is converted to DBML on the way in.
Draw the system. Write Mermaid class diagrams and flowcharts that land on the same board as the tables.
Lay out the board. Move and collapse cards, color tables, group related cards in a labelled frame, and annotate the board with sticky notes and drawings.
Look at the result. Render the ER diagram as an image to check its own work.
Start from a template. Browse the database schema templates and copy one into a project to build on.

Why design over MCP instead of in a chat

An assistant can sketch a schema in a chat window, but the result is a block of text in a conversation nobody else can see, and it is gone when the chat is. Over MCP the work lands in a shared project: the schema is a DBML document your team can open, the diagram updates live for everyone on the board, and the next session, yours or the assistant’s, starts from what is actually there.

It also changes what review looks like. Instead of reading generated SQL line by line, you look at the ER diagram the assistant just changed, with the relationships drawn, and decide from there. That is the same loop the rest of DB Planner is built around; see the database design tool for the human side of it.

Access you control

The connection is authorized through an OAuth 2.1 consent flow in your browser. Read and write are separate scopes, dbplanner:read and dbplanner:write, enforced by the server rather than by the client, and the assistant only ever sees the organizations and projects your own account can. No password or API key is stored in the client’s configuration.

Prompts to try

"Import this SQL dump into a new project called Billing and arrange the board."
"Add a payments table with a foreign key to users, then arrange the board."
"Find every table without a primary key and suggest one."
"Start a project from the e-commerce template and add wishlists."
"Draw a flowchart of checkout and group it with the orders and payments tables."

MCP questions

What is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol is an open standard for connecting AI assistants to outside tools and data. DB Planner hosts an MCP server at https://api.dbplanner.io/mcp, so an assistant that speaks MCP can read and edit your projects as tools instead of you copying schema text in and out of a chat.

Which AI assistants work with DB Planner?

Any MCP client that supports remote HTTP servers with OAuth sign-in. Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Cursor all work; in Claude Code it is one command.

Can the assistant change my schema without my permission?

Only if you grant it write access. Read and write are separate OAuth scopes, dbplanner:read and dbplanner:write, chosen on a consent screen and enforced on the server. A read-only connection can look but not change anything.

Do I need an API key?

No. The client authorizes once through a browser sign-in, and no password or API key is stored in its configuration file.

Put your schema on the board

Start on the free plan, no card needed. Pro is $5 a month when you outgrow it.

Start designing free