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What Is the IBM i MCP Server? Connecting AI Agents to Db2 for i Data

Updated August 10, 2026

The IBM i MCP Server is an open-source project IBM published on GitHub, opened in beta on October 27, 2025. It implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard that lets AI agents and LLM-powered tools such as Claude, GPT-4, and local LLMs query Db2 for i data, inspect system objects, and take defined actions on IBM i, all through natural language.

How it works

IBM i MCP Server at a glance

AspectDetail
ProtocolModel Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard for connecting AI agents to external tools and data
ConnectivityMapepire, a secure, modern Db2 for i connectivity layer
Tool definitionsYAML-defined SQL tools, shared with a companion ibmi CLI (@ibm/ibmi-cli)
StatusBeta, opened October 27, 2025

Realistic use cases

Natural-language data lookups

An AI agent answering a question like current inventory levels or open orders by querying Db2 for i directly, without a developer writing SQL by hand.

System object inspection

An AI agent inspecting IBM i system objects and metadata as part of answering a broader question or completing a task.

Defined agent actions

An AI agent taking a specific, tool-scoped action against IBM i data or objects, depending on which YAML-defined tools an administrator has exposed.

This is not a predictive or generative capability. It will not train or score machine learning models, and it will not write RPG code for you ... for code generation and explanation, see IBM Bob. Confirm current capability and production-readiness against IBM's GitHub repository before scoping a project, since this project is still in beta.

Sources

Related Tools & Vendors

IBM i MCP Server

An open-source, IBM-published Model Context Protocol server that lets AI agents and LLMs query Db2 for i data, inspect system objects, and take defined actions on IBM i using natural language.

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