Astro provides experimental Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that allow AI models and agents to securely access your Astro and Airflow resources. Connect to MCP servers natively or by using the mcp-remote module in compatible AI clients.
For enhanced agent capabilities such as Dag authoring, testing, and debugging, see the Astronomer AI Agent tooling repository.
Astro provides two experimental MCP servers:
astro-registry) is a remote MCP server for accessing the Astro Registry.astro-cloud) is an authenticated remote MCP server for discovering and managing your Astro resources, including Deployments, Workspaces, and environment variables. The Astro Cloud MCP server follows the authenticated remote MCP specification, with the server centrally hosted and managed by Astronomer.CTRL/CMD + ,.Cascade > Manage plugins.View raw config.astro-cloud section if you’re using the authenticated Astro Cloud MCP server.
<MY_ORGANIZATION_ID> in the URL of the configuration above.<MY_AUTH_TOKEN> in the "env" section of the configuration above.Save to save your configuration and check the Plugins section to verify that your servers are connected.The Airflow MCP Plugin (astro-airflow-mcp) is an open-source package that installs directly into an Airflow Deployment and exposes an MCP endpoint on the webserver. This gives AI tools direct access to Airflow’s REST API — Dags, task logs, connections, variables, and more — without running a separate server.
Unlike the Astro Cloud MCP server (which manages Astro-level resources like Deployments and Workspaces), the Airflow MCP Plugin provides Airflow-level access for a single Deployment: listing Dags, viewing task logs, inspecting connections, diagnosing failures, and more.
The plugin auto-detects the installed Airflow version and registers the appropriate integration:
Add astro-airflow-mcp to your Astro project’s requirements.txt:
Deploy the change. The package auto-registers as an Airflow plugin — no Dockerfile changes or additional configuration needed.
After deploying, set the following environment variable on your Deployment to block write operations:
FASTMCP_STATELESS_HTTP environment variable applies only when running the MCP server as a standalone process.The MCP protocol uses POST requests for all operations, including read-only ones. Your Deployment API token does not need write permissions for read-only MCP access: authorization is still based on the underlying Airflow permissions, so a custom role with read permissions such as *.get is sufficient. The important exception is WORKSPACE_MEMBER, which Astro’s auth proxy blocks from making the POST requests the MCP protocol requires.
Create a Deployment API token with one of the following roles:
WORKSPACE_MEMBER does not work with the MCP plugin. Astro’s auth proxy blocks POST requests for this role, which prevents the MCP protocol handshake from completing.
For least-privilege access, create a custom Deployment role that includes only read permissions. This ensures the token can use all MCP read tools but cannot modify any Airflow resources.
In the Astro UI, go to Organization Settings > Access Management > Roles > + Add Role.
Set the Scope to Deployment.
Name the role MCP_VIEWER with a description like “Read-only access for Airflow MCP plugin.”
Select all deployment.airflow.*.get permissions. See Custom role permissions reference for the full list. The role should include these 28 permissions:
Click Create role.
Then create a Deployment API token with the new role:
After the plugin is deployed and a token is created, the MCP endpoint is available at:
You can find your Deployment’s webserver URL in the Astro UI on the Deployment’s overview page.
Use -t http, not -t sse. The MCP endpoint returns SSE-formatted responses, but the correct Claude Code transport type is http. Using -t sse causes the connection to fail.