New blog post re MCP server.

Author: anuveyatsu

site/content/blog/supercharging-data-portals-with-the-portaljs-mcp-server.md

@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+---
+title: "Supercharging Data Portals with the PortalJS MCP Server"
+description: "Explore how the PortalJS MCP server unlocks AI-native discovery, metadata exploration, and data previews for modern portals — now open sourced and easy to integrate."
+created: 2025-11-25
+authors: ['anuveyatsu']
+tags:
+  - MCP
+  - PortalJS Cloud
+  - AI
+  - data portals
+image: "/static/img/blog/supercharging-data-portals.png"
+filetype: 'blog'
+---
+
+Back in September this year, we published [our first look at using MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers](/blog/mcp-server-ai-assistants-to-improve-data-portals) to give AI assistants structured access to data portals.
+
+Now the implementation is live and fully open source.
+
+PortalJS MCP runs in production on Cloudflare’s MCP SDK, which gives us a fast, global, edge-native runtime. It comes with low latency, high reliability, and no “AI integration infra tax” for you to pay.
+
+The PortalJS MCP server is publicly available at:
+
+```
+mcp.portaljs.com
+```
+
+If your data portal runs on PortalJS Cloud, connecting it is dead simple. Your MCP endpoint is:
+
+```
+mcp.portaljs.com/@org-name/sse
+```
+
+Paste that into ChatGPT, Claude, or any MCP-capable client, and your AI assistant immediately gains structured access to your datasets, metadata, and previews.
+
+And because we think this should be a standard building block for modern data portals, we’ve open sourced the whole implementation here:
+
+https://github.com/datopian/portaljs-mcp-server
+
+Use it, fork it, deploy your own version, or just read through it to understand how MCP can sit cleanly on top of a data portal.
+
+## Why MCP Is a Game-Changer for Data Portals
+
+AI chats are powerful, but without structured access they’re basically guessing. MCP fixes that by giving models secure, predictable tools to interact with real systems — including your data portal.
+
+In practice, this unlocks:
+
+* **Reliable dataset discovery** backed by actual portal data search
+* **Accurate metadata exploration** without hallucination risk
+* **On-demand previews** (rows, schema, field types)
+* **One clean integration** that works across multiple AI clients
+
+This effectively turns your AI assistant into a precision data navigator — not just a polite autocomplete engine.
+
+## What’s Available in the MCP Today
+
+The initial toolset focuses on high-value workflows for discovery and exploration:
+
+### Search tool enables data discovery
+
+* List datasets
+* Keyword search
+* Metadata filtering
+* Dataset summaries
+
+### Get tool for metadata exploration
+
+* Resource lists
+* Field definitions
+* Schema inspection
+* Full metadata extraction
+
+### Table preview
+
+* First N rows
+* Column summaries
+* Type inference
+* Lightweight profiling
+
+These tools are designed to be **fast, bounded, and safe**. The model doesn’t pull full datasets — it gets structured previews that are ideal for reasoning and analysis.
+
+## Works with ChatGPT, Claude, VS Code, and More
+
+Our MCP server is model-agnostic by default:
+
+* Claude — native MCP support
+* ChatGPT Desktop — native MCP support
+* VS Code MCP clients — plug-and-play
+* Future MCP-enabled tools — automatically compatible
+
+Wherever your team uses AI, your portal can now show up *as a first-class, tool-based data source*.
+
+## Why Cloudflare’s MCP SDK?
+
+We chose Cloudflare’s SDK because MCP should feel like infrastructure you **never have to think about**.
+
+Using Cloudflare gives us:
+
+* **Edge deployment by default** → fast globally, no region bottlenecks
+* **Battle-tested SSE support** → stable streaming tool calls
+* **Simple scaling model** → no infra babysitting as usage grows
+
+This matters because AI tooling isn’t forgiving. If your MCP endpoint is slow or flaky, your user’s trust evaporates instantly. Cloudflare’s runtime lets us keep it sharp.
+
+## What’s Coming Next
+
+This is only the first layer. We’re already expanding the MCP toolbox, including:
+
+* Write-back tools (tags, notes, curation workflows)
+* Automated metadata enrichment
+* Data quality checks
+* Permission-aware exploration
+* Semantic search
+* Lineage and observability integration
+
+The direction is clear: your data portal becomes an intelligent interface, not a static catalog.
+
+## Try It Today
+
+If your portal runs on PortalJS Cloud, your MCP endpoint is:
+
+```
+https://mcp.portaljs.com/@org-name/sse
+```
+
+Plug it into your AI assistant and start exploring your data conversationally — with real structure, real metadata, and real previews.
+
+Want help rolling this out to your team or customers? Reach out. We’re building this to make data portals genuinely useful in an AI-first world.