@betterdb/mcp

@betterdb/mcp

Give your AI assistant deep visibility into your Valkey and Redis databases. The BetterDB MCP server connects Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and other MCP-compatible clients to the BetterDB monitoring platform — letting your AI query real-time metrics, diagnose slow commands, detect anomalies, and investigate incidents without leaving your editor.

See it live in BetterDB Monitor

BetterDB Monitor gives you live dashboards for the AI workloads running on your Valkey:

• AI Cache & Memory - hit rate, cost saved, evictions, and index size across all your caches and memory stores, with history.
• AI Traces - OpenTelemetry waterfalls for each request, correlated with live Valkey state to explain every cache hit and miss.

Run it self-hosted (docker run -p 3001:3001 betterdb/monitor), or use BetterDB Cloud - which can also provision a managed, TLS-enabled Valkey instance (Search module included) in one click.

Why BetterDB?

BetterDB is a monitoring and observability platform built for Valkey and Redis providing real-time dashboards, anomaly detection, and operational intelligence for your Valkey and Redis deployments. Unlike tools that only show a live snapshot, BetterDB persists historical metrics, slowlogs, and audit trails — so you can investigate what happened yesterday, not just what's happening now.

Key capabilities exposed through MCP:

• Real-time health checks — memory fragmentation, hit rate, replication lag, connected clients
• Slow command analysis — slowlog and COMMANDLOG (Valkey 8+) with pattern aggregation
• Hot key detection — find cache-busting keys via LFU frequency scores or idle time analysis
• Cluster-wide visibility — per-node stats, aggregated slowlogs, and slot-level metrics across all nodes
• Anomaly detection — Z-score analysis on memory, CPU, hit rate, and other metrics (Pro)
• Client activity tracking — connection counts, command distribution, and buffer usage over time
• ACL audit log — investigate auth failures and access patterns
• Latency event history — track latency trends for specific event types

Quick Start

1. Get a token

In BetterDB, go to Settings → MCP Tokens and generate a new token.

2. Configure your MCP client

Add to your MCP client config (e.g. Claude Code or OpenAI Codex):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "betterdb": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@betterdb/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "BETTERDB_URL": "https://<your-workspace>.app.betterdb.com",
        "BETTERDB_TOKEN": "<your-token>"
      }
    }
  }
}

For local development with an existing monitor (token not required):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "betterdb": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@betterdb/mcp"],
      "env": {
        "BETTERDB_URL": "http://localhost:3001"
      }
    }
  }
}

For zero-config local development (auto-starts and manages a monitor process):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "betterdb": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@betterdb/mcp", "--autostart", "--persist"]
    }
  }
}

3. Start asking questions

Once connected, your AI assistant can query your databases directly:

• "What's the health of my production Valkey instance?"
• "Show me the slowest commands from the last hour"
• "Are there any hot keys causing uneven load?"
• "Which cluster node has the highest memory usage?"
• "Have there been any anomalies in the last 24 hours?"
• "Tune the threshold on my faq-cache — propose a change for me to review"
• "Why is the weather_lookup tool's hit rate so low?"

Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
BETTERDB_URL	http://localhost:3001	BetterDB instance URL (port depends on your Docker config)
BETTERDB_TOKEN	—	MCP token from Settings (required for cloud, optional for local)
BETTERDB_INSTANCE_ID	—	Pre-select a specific instance (skips select_instance)

CLI Arguments

Argument	Default	Description
--autostart	—	Spawn and manage a local BetterDB monitor process on startup
--persist	—	Keep the monitor running after the MCP server exits (requires --autostart)
--port <number>	3001	Port for the auto-started monitor API
--storage <type>	sqlite	Storage backend: sqlite or memory
--stop	—	Stop a previously persisted monitor process and exit

Available Tools

Instance Tools

Tool	Description
list_instances	List all registered Valkey/Redis instances with connection status
select_instance	Select which instance subsequent calls operate on
get_health	Synthetic health summary — the best starting point for any investigation
get_info	Full INFO stats, optionally filtered by section
get_slowlog	Recent slow commands from the slowlog buffer
get_commandlog	Recent COMMANDLOG entries (Valkey 8+)
get_latency	Latency event history
get_latency_history	Detailed history for a specific latency event
get_memory	MEMORY DOCTOR assessment and MEMORY STATS breakdown
get_clients	Active client list with connection details
get_hot_keys	Hot key tracking data from LFU or idle time analysis
get_slowlog_patterns	Aggregated slowlog patterns with frequency and avg duration
get_commandlog_history	Persisted COMMANDLOG entries with time range filtering
get_commandlog_patterns	Aggregated COMMANDLOG patterns
get_anomalies	Anomaly detection events (Pro)
get_client_activity	Time-bucketed client activity from persisted snapshots
get_acl_audit	ACL audit log entries
get_cluster_nodes	Cluster node discovery — roles, health, slot ranges
get_cluster_node_stats	Per-node performance stats across the cluster
get_cluster_slowlog	Aggregated slowlog across all cluster nodes
get_slot_stats	Per-slot key counts and CPU usage (Valkey 8+)

Connection Management Tools

Tool	Description
add_connection	Add a new Valkey/Redis connection to BetterDB
test_connection	Test connection credentials without persisting
remove_connection	Remove a connection from BetterDB
set_default_connection	Set a connection as the active default

Monitor Lifecycle Tools

Tool	Description
start_monitor	Start a persistent BetterDB monitor background process
stop_monitor	Stop a previously started persistent monitor process

Cache Intelligence Tools

For deployments running @betterdb/semantic-cache or @betterdb/agent-cache. Caches register themselves in a Valkey-side discovery hash; Monitor exposes them through the tools below.

Read-only:

Tool	Description
cache_list	List all caches registered for the active instance with hit rate and total ops
cache_health	Detailed health for one cache; response branches on cache_type (semantic_cache vs agent_cache)
cache_threshold_recommendation	Threshold-tuning recommendation for a semantic_cache, derived from the rolling similarity window
cache_tool_effectiveness	Per-tool hit rate, cost saved, and TTL recommendation for an agent_cache
cache_similarity_distribution	Histogram of recent similarity scores for a semantic_cache (20 buckets, width 0.1)
cache_recent_changes	Recent proposals (any status) for a single cache, so agents can avoid re-proposing

Propose changes (advisory — no Valkey writes until approved):

Tool	Description
cache_propose_threshold_adjust	Propose a similarity-threshold change on a semantic_cache (per-category or global)
cache_propose_tool_ttl_adjust	Propose a per-tool TTL change on an agent_cache
cache_propose_invalidate	Propose an invalidation; filter shape branches on cache type

Approve / reject / list:

Tool	Description
cache_list_pending_proposals	List pending proposals on the active instance, optionally filtered by cache_name
cache_get_proposal	Fetch a single proposal by id, including its audit trail
cache_approve_proposal	Approve a pending proposal; synchronously applies the change to Valkey
cache_reject_proposal	Reject a pending proposal with an optional reason
cache_edit_and_approve_proposal	Edit a proposal's value (threshold or TTL) and approve in one step; invalidate proposals are not editable

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• A running BetterDB instance (cloud or self-hosted), or use --autostart to have the MCP server manage one automatically

Documentation

Full docs: docs.betterdb.com

License

See LICENSE for details.