Allow connection string to be passed as arg instead of HOST + PORT + USER + PASS + DB

[echarrod]

Our Mysql passwords roll every hour for security, and so we have to connect with new credentials each time.

I would like to allow the option to specify a MYSQL_CONNECTION_STRING (instead of MYSQL_HOST, MYSQL_PORT, MYSQL_USER, MYSQ_PASS and MYSQL_DB) so that we could pass this in whenever we need, rather than modifying the individual values in the config.

I'd also want to pass it through an input, so that we can share mcp server settings, but not keep the credentials in the mcp.json file (but I think this is fine, as we can just specify input:connection_string or similar)

Just wanted to check there weren't any technical limitations in doing this before I have a go

[benborla]

I have an improvement on the codebase, because I want to have a multiple connection, so yes, this will be part of the next update.

[benborla]

Still in progress, I have also need to consider the variety of configurations such as MySQL hosted on a server, and on a socket. :-)

[echarrod]

Hi Ben 👋
I actually found a workaround for this, wanted to share in case that helps!

1. My mcp.json file in VS Code:

    "mysql": { // https://github.com/benborla/mcp-server-mysql/
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@benborla29/mcp-server-mysql"
      ],
      "env": {
        // Connection details for MySQL, using environment variables that can be set via a mcp_mysql_set function
        "MYSQL_HOST": "${env:MYSQL_MCP_HOST}",
        "MYSQL_PORT": "${env:MYSQL_MCP_PORT}",
        "MYSQL_USER": "${env:MYSQL_MCP_USER}",
        "MYSQL_PASS": "${env:MYSQL_MCP_PASS}",
        "MYSQL_DB": "${env:MYSQL_MCP_DB}",
        "ALLOW_INSERT_OPERATION": "false",
        "ALLOW_UPDATE_OPERATION": "false",
        "ALLOW_DELETE_OPERATION": "false",
        // "PATH": "/Users/ed/.volta/bin/node/../", // <--- Important to add the following, run in your terminal `echo "$(which node)/../"` to get the path
        // "NODE_PATH": "/Users/ed/.volta/bin/node/../../lib/node_modules" // <--- Important to add the following, run in your terminal `echo "$(which node)/../../lib/node_modules"`
      }
    },

2. I declared a function in my .zshrc file to set these vars from a connection string:

# Parse a MySQL connection string and set environment variables for MCP MySQL server
function mcp_mysql_set() {
  if [[ -z "$1" ]]; then
    echo "Usage: mcp_mysql_set 'mysql --default-auth=mysql_native_password -A -hHOST -PPORT -uUSER -pPASSWORD DATABASE'"
    return 1
  fi

  local conn_string="$1"
  
  # Extract HOST from -h parameter
  if [[ "$conn_string" =~ "-h([^ ]+)" ]]; then
    export MYSQL_MCP_HOST="${match[1]}"
  fi

  # Extract PORT from -P parameter
  if [[ "$conn_string" =~ "-P([0-9]+)" ]]; then
    export MYSQL_MCP_PORT="${match[1]}"
  fi

  # Extract USER from -u parameter
  if [[ "$conn_string" =~ "-u([^ ]+)" ]]; then
    export MYSQL_MCP_USER="${match[1]}"
  fi

  # Extract PASSWORD from -p parameter (no space after -p)
  if [[ "$conn_string" =~ "-p([^ ]+)" ]]; then
    export MYSQL_MCP_PASS="${match[1]}"
  fi

  # Extract the last argument as the database name
  local db=$(echo "$conn_string" | awk '{print $NF}')
  export MYSQL_MCP_DB="$db"

  echo "Set MySQL MCP environment variables:"
  echo "MYSQL_MCP_HOST=$MYSQL_MCP_HOST"
  echo "MYSQL_MCP_PORT=$MYSQL_MCP_PORT"
  echo "MYSQL_MCP_USER=$MYSQL_MCP_USER"
  echo "MYSQL_MCP_DB=$MYSQL_MCP_DB"
  echo "MYSQL_MCP_PASS=*****" # Don't print the actual password
}

I then just call it with this from terminal:

mcp_mysql_set "mysql --default-auth=mysql_native_password -A -h<HOST> -P<PORT> -u<USER> -p<PASSWORD> <DBNAME>"

[echarrod]

My solution isn't great though, as it does store these values as env vars. Ideally we'd not do that