Connect ILC MCP to Fishbowl and Claude Code

ILC MCP connects Claude Code to your live Fishbowl database so you can ask about your data from the terminal and get answers from the actual numbers. Unlike the consumer chat apps, Claude Code is configured from the command line rather than a settings screen — but it’s a two-step connect.

New to this? Start with What is an MCP Query? and When not to use an MCP. Claude Code’s own reference is its MCP documentation.

Already connected it in Claude.ai?

If you’ve added ILC MCP in Claude.ai, you may not need to do anything here. When you sign in to Claude Code with the same Claude account, the connectors from your account are available automatically — skip straight to asking. The steps below are for adding it directly instead, or when you sign in to Claude Code a different way. If a connector carried over from Claude.ai needs re-authorizing, do that at claude.ai/customize/connectors.

Before you start

You’ll need three things:

Your MCP URL. ILC hosts the server and sends you your endpoint. Below it looks like https://yourmcp.example.com/mcp — use the real one we send you.
Your own Fishbowl login. You sign in as yourself over OAuth, in the browser. It’s never a shared key, and your Fishbowl permissions carry over.
Claude Code installed.

Connect it

Add the server. In your terminal, outside a Claude Code session, add ILC MCP as a remote HTTP server:
```
claude mcp add --transport http fishbowl https://yourmcp.example.com/mcp
```
The --transport http flag matters: without it, Claude Code treats the URL as a command to run instead of a remote server. Add -s user if you want the server available across all your projects rather than just the current one.
Authenticate. Start Claude Code with claude, run /mcp, and select fishbowl. A browser opens; sign in with your own Fishbowl user and grant the read-only scopes — sql:read and docs:read. Claude Code handles the OAuth registration and stores and refreshes the token for you.
Verify. Run /mcp again, or claude mcp list from your shell. The status should read Connected.
Ask. In a session, ask in plain English — “how many customers are in Fishbowl?” — and Claude Code writes the SQL through the connector and answers live.

If sign-in completes but the server still shows Needs authentication, a stale process is usually holding the OAuth callback port — close other sessions and run /mcp again.

What’s protected

Read-only. The read tier grants sql:read and docs:read only. Claude Code can look, not change.
Your login, your permissions. You authenticate as yourself through a one-time OAuth sign-in. What you can see in Fishbowl is what the AI can see.
Every query logged. Each call is recorded, so there’s always a record of what was asked.

Read-only vs. read-write

ILC MCP comes in a read-only tier and a read-write tier. The steps above use read-only. Read-write grants scopes that can change Fishbowl data, so treat it with the same care as any account that can edit your system — and bear in mind an agent like Claude Code can chain many calls on its own.

Prefer a different tool? We have guides for ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Gemini, and OpenCode.