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How to use Clickhouse with VS Code

You want Clickhouse inside VS Code so it can explore an unfamiliar database, answer a data question with SQL, investigate an unexpected metric, and validate a query against the schema — without you copy-pasting between tabs. Here is the whole setup, once.

Create your Clickhouse gateway

The gateway is the thing VS Code connects to, and it is where you decide which Clickhouse tools an agent may use. You create it once and every client reuses it.

  1. Create an Arcade account

    Sign up and open the dashboard. The free tier is enough to follow this through.

  2. Create an MCP Gateway and select your Clickhouse tools

    In the dashboard, create a gateway and pick the Clickhouse tools you want to expose. The gateway is what your client connects to, and it is where tool access is decided.

  3. Copy your gateway URL

    Every client below needs it.

    https://api.arcade.dev/mcp/<YOUR-GATEWAY-SLUG>

Create a Clickhouse gateway Opens the gateway builder in your Arcade dashboard.

Connect the gateway to VS Code

  1. Add the server

    VS Code 1.107.0 or higher. Command Palette → MCP: Add Server… → choose HTTP, paste your gateway URL, and name it something like mcp-arcade.

  2. Start it and authenticate

    Click Start next to the server in mcp.json or under Extensions → MCP Servers - Installed, then approve the Arcade sign-in and consent screens.

  3. Try it out

    Open the chat pane, switch to Agent mode, and ask it to use one of your Clickhouse tools.

Full VS Code guide in the docs steps verified 2026-08-13

Try these Clickhouse prompts

VS Code can now act on your Clickhouse account. Click a prompt to copy it.

Use a credential limited to the databases and tables the agent needs, and keep access read-only to prevent changes. Pair it with Contextual Access policies to control which database access an agent receives, so it can inspect schemas and run queries without broader access.

Ready to actually ship your agent?

Free to start. Ready for enterprise when you are.

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