airflow-mcp-server: An MCP Server for controlling Airflow

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Overview

A Model Context Protocol server for controlling Airflow via Airflow APIs.

Demo Video

airflow_mcp_server_demo.mp4

Setup

Usage with Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "airflow-mcp-server": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "airflow-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "AIRFLOW_BASE_URL": "http://<host:port>/api/v1",
        // Either use AUTH_TOKEN for basic auth
        "AUTH_TOKEN": "<base64_encoded_username_password>",
        // Or use COOKIE for cookie-based auth
        "COOKIE": "<session_cookie>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Operation Modes

The server supports two operation modes:

• Safe Mode (--safe): Only allows read-only operations (GET requests). This is useful when you want to prevent any modifications to your Airflow instance.
• Unsafe Mode (--unsafe): Allows all operations including modifications. This is the default mode.

To start in safe mode:

airflow-mcp-server --safe

To explicitly start in unsafe mode (though this is default):

airflow-mcp-server --unsafe

Considerations

The MCP Server expects environment variables to be set:

• AIRFLOW_BASE_URL: The base URL of the Airflow API
• AUTH_TOKEN: The token to use for basic auth (This should be base64 encoded username:password) (Optional if COOKIE is provided)
• COOKIE: The session cookie to use for authentication (Optional if AUTH_TOKEN is provided)
• OPENAPI_SPEC: The path to the OpenAPI spec file (Optional) (defaults to latest stable release)

Authentication

The server supports two authentication methods:

• Basic Auth: Using base64 encoded username:password via AUTH_TOKEN environment variable
• Cookie: Using session cookie via COOKIE environment variable

At least one of these authentication methods must be provided.

Page Limit

The default is 100 items, but you can change it using maximum_page_limit option in [api] section in the airflow.cfg file.

Tasks

• First API
• Parse OpenAPI Spec
• Safe/Unsafe mode implementation
• Allow session auth
• Parse proper description with list_tools.
• Airflow config fetch (specifically for page limit)
• Env variables optional (env variables might not be ideal for airflow plugins)