Showboard

Showboard is an MCP server that lets Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and other coding agents answer questions about your SQL database, or a folder of Excel and CSV files, with charts, tables and headline numbers: in your browser, inside your own app, or beside your terminal.

The agent writes a few read-only SQL queries and a short layout. Showboard runs the queries, picks a chart for each result, lays out the board and puts it on your screen. Every number comes from a query, one click away under its chart.

Let your agent set it up

In your project, ask your coding agent:

Set up Showboard in this project: run npx showboard guide and follow it.

The guide is written for the agent. It has the agent pick the path that fits the project (spreadsheets, a database, or your own app), run the commands, and check its own work with npx showboard doctor. doctor starts Showboard the way each agent will and says how to fix anything that fails.

Or by hand

You need Node.js 22.13 or later.

A folder of spreadsheets, or a database:

npx showboard init ./reports                 # .xlsx, .xlsm, .csv, .tsv files or folders of them
npx showboard init --db ./shop.sqlite        # or a Postgres URL (or set SHOWBOARD_DB)
npx showboard doctor                         # checks the setup

Restart your agent in that folder, then open http://localhost:4710, or run npx showboard pane in a terminal beside the agent. init writes the settings for Claude Code, plus any agent the folder already has settings for. To name others, pass --agent codex,opencode,bharatcode,gemini,cursor,vscode (or all).

Inside your own app (React 19):

npm install showboard zod

// server: mount the handler. Next.js, Express, Hono and node:http are in the guide.
import { createShowboard } from "showboard/server";

const showboard = await createShowboard({ db: process.env.DATABASE_URL, boardsDir: ".showboard/boards" });
const handle = showboard.handler({ basePath: "/showboard" });   // (req: Request) => Promise<Response>

// page: where boards appear
import { Board, ShowboardProvider } from "showboard/react";
import "showboard/styles.css";

<ShowboardProvider url="/showboard">
  <Board />
</ShowboardProvider>;

Then point the agents at it: npx showboard init --url http://localhost:3000/showboard.

Commands

Command	What it does
showboard guide	Setup steps for a coding agent
showboard init	Adds Showboard to each agent's settings in this folder
showboard doctor	Checks the setup the way each agent will meet it, with fixes
showboard mcp	The MCP server the agent starts
showboard serve	Showboard's own board page, on its own
showboard pane	The boards as text, in a terminal beside the agent

Safe by design

• Postgres queries run in a READ ONLY transaction, with a time and row limit. SQLite files are opened read-only, and spreadsheets are only read.
• Only SELECT is accepted.
• In your app, the agent can run only the actions you register, each checked against its input schema.
• The handler answers only localhost, and refuses requests from other websites.

More

• README: the benchmark, how it works, and examples.
• SETUP.md: the agent's setup guide.
• Reference: every option, tool, command and route.

MIT licensed. Built with help from AI coding agents, mostly Claude Code.