Connect OpenMetadata
Connecting OpenMetadata gives the agents your curated metadata: asset search across your OpenMetadata instance, lineage, ownership, glossary, and tags, all feeding catalog, quality, and incident work. This connector is metadata-read focused — see Supported operations for the honest scope. Until verified, OpenMetadata stays in 🟡 Evaluation on sample data.
Prerequisites
Section titled “Prerequisites”- Data Workers installed and registered with your coding agent (install guide)
- A running OpenMetadata instance and its server URL
- Permission to create a bot and issue a JWT in OpenMetadata
Step 1 — Create a least-privilege credential
Section titled “Step 1 — Create a least-privilege credential”In OpenMetadata, create a dedicated bot (not a personal account) with a read-scoped role covering the assets you want visible, and issue a JWT for it. Read access is all this connector needs; don’t reuse the ingestion bot or an admin token (least-privilege guidance).
Checkpoint: a JWT exists for a bot whose OpenMetadata role is read-only.
Step 2 — Set the environment variables
Section titled “Step 2 — Set the environment variables”Set these in the shell your coding agent launches from, then restart the coding agent so the MCP server picks them up. The token stays on your machine; nothing is sent to Data Workers.
export OPENMETADATA_HOST="<https://openmetadata.yourco.internal>"export OPENMETADATA_JWT_TOKEN="<jwt>"Checkpoint: the variables are visible in the environment your coding agent starts from.
Step 3 — Verify
Section titled “Step 3 — Verify”Setting a credential is not the same as a working connection. Ask:
Test the connection to my OpenMetadata catalog.
The agent makes a real call to your instance. OpenMetadata shows 🟢 Connected only after that live test passes; a failure reports 🔴 with the reason. Full model: Verify your setup.
Checkpoint: OpenMetadata reports 🟢 Connected.
Supported operations
Section titled “Supported operations”| Operation | Status |
|---|---|
| Discovery (assets, schemas, lineage, metadata read) | Supported |
| Catalog control-plane writes | Not supported |
| RBAC (role-based access enforcement) | Not supported |
| Policy attachment and enforcement | Not supported |
| Credential vending (scoped, time-bound tokens) | Not supported |
Straight answer: OpenMetadata is a metadata-read connector today. Control-plane operations route to connectors that support them (for example your warehouse connector), and calling one here returns a clear error naming those connectors — never a pretend success.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Still answering from sample data | Variables set in a different shell, or agent not restarted | Set them in the shell your coding agent launches from, restart it |
| 🔴 with an auth error | JWT expired or revoked | Re-issue the bot’s JWT and update OPENMETADATA_JWT_TOKEN |
| 🔴 with a network/timeout error | Host can’t reach the server URL (internal network, VPN) | Run the agents from a host with network access to OpenMetadata |
| Assets missing from answers | Bot’s role doesn’t cover those assets | Extend the bot’s read-scoped role to the missing assets |