GenAI Toolbox MCP Server¶

GenAI Toolbox is Google's open-source MCP Toolbox for Databases -- a lightweight server that exposes database operations as MCP-compatible tools. AI models can use these tools to list tables, describe schemas, and run SQL queries against a PostgreSQL database via natural language.

Architecture¶

graph LR
  AI["AI Model / GenAI Studio"] -->|"MCP protocol"| Toolbox["GenAI Toolbox"]
  Toolbox -->|"SQL queries"| PG["PostgreSQL (llamastack namespace)"]

GenAI Toolbox connects to the LlamaStack PostgreSQL database at postgres.llamastack.svc.cluster.local:5432. The RHOAI dashboard registers it as an MCP server, making it available in GenAI Studio for interactive use.

What Gets Deployed¶

Component	Resource	Description
`genai-toolbox`	Deployment	Toolbox server (v0.28.0) exposing MCP tools on port 5000
`genai-toolbox-config`	ConfigMap	Tool definitions (list-tables, describe-table, run-query)
`genai-toolbox-pg-credentials`	Secret	PostgreSQL connection credentials
`genai-toolbox`	Service + Route	In-cluster service and external TLS route
`genai-toolbox-sa`	ServiceAccount	Dedicated service account

Prerequisites¶

Requirement	Why
RHOAI platform (DSC Ready)	Namespace and dashboard integration
LlamaStack PostgreSQL	Toolbox connects to `postgres.llamastack.svc.cluster.local`
`dashboard-config` instance	Enables GenAI Studio in the RHOAI dashboard (Tech Preview, not enabled by default)
`mcp-servers` instance	Registers GenAI Toolbox as an MCP server in the dashboard

Secrets required

The included pg-secret.yaml contains placeholder credentials (PG_PASSWORD: CHANGE_ME). Update usecases/services/genai-toolbox/manifests/server/pg-secret.yaml with your LlamaStack PostgreSQL password before deploying. For production, use SealedSecrets or ExternalSecrets.

Deploy¶

GitOpsManual

GenAI Toolbox is auto-deployed by the cluster-services ApplicationSet when using the tier1-minimal profile.

After bootstrapping the cluster, the service-genai-toolbox Application is created automatically. The instance-dashboard-config and instance-mcp-servers Applications (auto-discovered by the cluster-instances AppSet) register it in the RHOAI dashboard.

# 1. Ensure LlamaStack is deployed (GenAI Toolbox uses its PostgreSQL)
oc apply -k usecases/services/llamastack/profiles/tier1-minimal/

# 2. Update the PostgreSQL credentials secret
#    Edit usecases/services/genai-toolbox/manifests/server/pg-secret.yaml

# 3. Deploy GenAI Toolbox
oc apply -k usecases/services/genai-toolbox/profiles/tier1-minimal/

# 4. Register as MCP server in the RHOAI dashboard
oc apply -k components/instances/dashboard-config/
oc apply -k components/instances/mcp-servers/

Verify¶

# Check the deployment is running
oc get pods -n genai-toolbox -l app=genai-toolbox

# Check the route
oc get route genai-toolbox -n genai-toolbox

# Test the MCP endpoint
curl -s "https://$(oc get route genai-toolbox -n genai-toolbox -o jsonpath='{.spec.host}')/api/toolsets" | python -m json.tool

Available Tools¶

The tools.yaml ConfigMap defines three tools bundled into a database-explorer toolset:

Tool	Type	Description
`list-tables`	`postgres-sql`	Lists all tables in the `public` schema
`describe-table`	`postgres-sql`	Describes columns of a specific table (takes `table_name` parameter)
`run-query`	`postgres-execute-sql`	Executes arbitrary SQL queries

MCP Server Registration¶

Two additional instances register GenAI Toolbox in the RHOAI dashboard:

components/instances/dashboard-config/ -- Sets genAiStudio: true in the OdhDashboardConfig, enabling the GenAI Studio UI
components/instances/mcp-servers/ -- Creates a ConfigMap in redhat-ods-applications that registers the toolbox at http://genai-toolbox.genai-toolbox.svc.cluster.local:5000/mcp

Both are auto-discovered by the cluster-instances ApplicationSet in GitOps mode.

Sync Wave Ordering¶

Wave	Resources	Purpose
-1 (default)	Namespace, ServiceAccount, Secret, ConfigMap, Service	Infrastructure ready first
1	Deployment	Server starts after config is available
2	Route	External access created after service exists

Customization¶

To add new tools or connect to a different database, edit the tools.yaml ConfigMap in usecases/services/genai-toolbox/manifests/server/tools-configmap.yaml. See the GenAI Toolbox documentation for the full tool definition format.

To connect to a different PostgreSQL instance, update:

The host, port, and database fields in tools-configmap.yaml
The credentials in pg-secret.yaml