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Environment Variables

Values for the following environment variables can be provided to configure the Tableau MCP server.

SERVER​

The URL of the Tableau server.

  • For Tableau Cloud, specify your site's specific pod e.g. https://prod-useast-c.online.tableau.com

SITE_NAME​

The Content URL of the Tableau site to use. This may differ from the site's display name (e.g., Content URL Internal vs display name [INTERNAL] My Company).

  • For Tableau Cloud, specify your site's Content URL.
  • For Tableau Server, you may leave this value blank to use the default site.
  • Required unless AUTH is oauth.

TRANSPORT​

The MCP transport type to use for the server.

AUTH​

The method the MCP server uses to authenticate to the Tableau REST APIs.

  • Default: pat
  • Possible values: pat, direct-trust, oauth, or passthrough
  • See Authentication for additional required variables depending on the desired method.
  • Setting passthrough implies ENABLE_PASSTHROUGH_AUTH is true, requires TRANSPORT=http, and requires every request to carry a token in the X-Tableau-Auth header or the workgroup_session_id cookie (there is no fallback auth method). OAuth stays disabled in this mode, even when OAUTH_ISSUER is set. See Passthrough Authentication.

ENABLED_LOGGERS​

A comma-separated list of loggers to enable.

  • Default: appLogger

  • Possible values (may be combined): fileLogger, appLogger

    • fileLogger — writes log entries and MCP notifications normally only sent to clients to hourly rotating files in the directory specified byFILE_LOGGER_DIRECTORY. Notifications include tool calls and their arguments as well as HTTP traces for the requests and responses to the Tableau REST APIs.
    • appLogger — writes log entries to stdout as JSON. Enabled by default when transport is http.

  • The log file names are in the format YYYY-MM-DDTHH-00-00-000Z.log e.g. 2025-10-15T22-00-00-000Z.log meaning this log file contains all log messages for hour 22 of 2025-10-15 in UTC time. All log entries for a given hour of the day are appended to the same file. The Desktop server starts every name with desktop-mcp-, e.g. desktop-mcp-2025-10-15T22-00-00-000Z.log.

  • Each line in the log file is a JSON object with a timestamp and additional properties:

    • timestamp: The timestamp of the log message in UTC time.
    • level: The logging level of the log message.
    • logger: The logger of the log message. This is typically rest-api for HTTP traces or tableau-mcp for tool calls.
    • message: The log message itself. This may be a string or a JSON object.

  • All notifications are written to the local log files regardless of the notification level, since DEFAULT_NOTIFICATION_LEVEL only applies to notifications sent to MCP clients. Server log output (stderr/console) is controlled separately by LOG_LEVEL.

  • Secrets are masked by default in the log files. To reveal them for debugging purposes, set the DISABLE_LOG_MASKING environment variable to true.

FILE_LOGGER_DIRECTORY​

The directory server logs are written to when ENABLED_LOGGERS includes fileLogger.

  • Default: [build directory]/logs i.e. build/logs.
  • The server will attempt to create the directory if it does not exist.
  • The web server never deletes old log files.
  • The Desktop server deletes its own desktop-mcp-*.log files older than 14 days when it starts.

DEFAULT_NOTIFICATION_LEVEL​

The default minimum level for sending notifications to MCP clients.

  • Default: debug
  • Possible values:
    • debug
    • info
    • notice
    • warning
    • error
    • critical
    • alert
    • emergency

This value determines the minimum level at which to send notifications to MCP clients. That is, if set to debug, all notifications will be sent. If set to error, only notifications with a level of error or higher will be sent. Note that MCP clients can change the minimum level any time they want.

Note: this variable was named DEFAULT_LOG_LEVEL until version 2.0.0

LOG_LEVEL​

The minimum severity level for server log output (stderr on stdio transport, console on http transport, and file logger).

  • Default: info
  • Possible values:
    • debug — all log entries
    • info
    • notice
    • warning
    • error
    • critical
    • alert
    • emergency

Log entries with a level below the configured value are silently dropped. This is independent of DEFAULT_NOTIFICATION_LEVEL, which controls MCP client notifications.

DISABLE_LOG_MASKING​

Disable masking of credentials in MCP client notifications and server logs. For debug purposes only.

  • Default: false

NOTIFICATION_PAYLOAD_MAX_BYTES​

The maximum string length included in MCP client notifications and server logs before large payloads are redacted or truncated.

  • Default: 8192
  • Must be a positive number.

Binary payloads, large SVG/XML payloads, and large base64 image payloads are redacted. Other strings larger than this value are truncated.

DATASOURCE_CREDENTIALS​

A JSON string that includes usernames and passwords for any datasources that require them.

The format is:

{"ds-luid1":[{"luid":"ds1-connection-luid1","u":"username1","p":"password1"},{"luid":"ds1-connection-luid2","u":"username2","p":"password2"}],"ds-luid2":[{"luid":"ds2-connection-luid1","u":"username3","p":"password3"}]}

This is a JSON-stringified version of the following object:

{
  "ds-luid1": [
    { luid: "ds1-connection-luid1", u: "username1", p: "password1" },
    { luid: "ds1-connection-luid2", u: "username2", p: "password2" }
  ],
  "ds-luid2": [
    { luid: "ds2-connection-luid1", u: "username3", p: "password3" }
  ]
}

The connection LUIDs can be determined using the Query Data Source Connections REST API.

Future work will include a tool to automate this process. For more information, see Connect to your data source.

INCLUDE_TOOLS​

A comma-separated list of tool or tool group names to include in the server. Only these tools will be available. This variable is site overridable, see Site Settings.

  • Default: Empty string (all are included)
  • For a list of available tools and groups, see toolName.ts.
  • Mixing tool names and group names is allowed.

EXCLUDE_TOOLS​

A comma-separated list of tool or tool group names to exclude from the server. All other tools will be available. This variable is site overridable, see Site Settings.

  • Default: Empty string (none are excluded)
  • Cannot be provided with INCLUDE_TOOLS.

TOOL_PROFILE​

Selects which tools the Desktop authoring server registers, and whether the combined Web and Desktop server loads its Web tools lazily. The value is trimmed and lowercased. The standalone Web server ignores TOOL_PROFILE. On the combined server, only combined-lean changes the Web half.

  • Unset or dynamic-authoring: the Desktop server registers a lean native authoring subset.
  • full: every Desktop tool.
  • demo: the demo subset. Experimental; it may change or be removed in a minor release.
  • combined-lean: the full Desktop surface, and the Web tools load on demand (see below).
  • Any other value logs a warning and uses the default (dynamic-authoring) set.

Lazy Web loading for combined-lean happens only on the combined server, which runs over stdio with one identity per process. On the standalone Desktop server, combined-lean acts like full. On the combined server, only the load-web-tools tool is listed for the Web half at startup. A client calls it with a tool group name (or all), the server registers that group's tools, and it sends a tools/list_changed notification. The tool's description lists every group and its tools. Standalone Web servers register every Web tool.

The load-web-tools result is JSON { status, toolNames, warnings?, notes? }:

  • status is loaded, already-loaded, or partial. partial means a retryable failure dropped some of the requested tools; call load-web-tools again for that group.
  • warnings lists retryable problems for the requested group only, such as a failed site role lookup, a registration condition check that could not be completed, or a tool that failed to register.
  • notes lists deliberate omissions for the requested group, such as a registration condition that is not met. Calling again does not change these.
  • Tools left out on purpose (site role, INCLUDE_TOOLS/EXCLUDE_TOOLS, unmet conditions) count as loaded, so the group is not retried.

MAX_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS​

The maximum timeout for requests to the Tableau Server REST API.

  • Default: 600000 (10 minutes)
  • Must be a positive number between 5000 (5 seconds) and 3600000 (1 hour).

MAX_RESULT_LIMIT​

The maximum number of results that every tool with a limit parameter can return when no tool-specific max result limit is set in the MAX_RESULT_LIMITS variable. This variable is site and request overridable, see Site Settings and Request Overrides.

warning

Take care when setting this value and be sure to set appropriate tool-specific limits using the MAX_RESULT_LIMITS variable.

  • Default: Empty string (no limit)
  • Must be a positive number.

MAX_RESULT_LIMITS​

A comma-separated list of tool names (or tool group names) and the maximum number of results that each tool (or tools in the group) can return. This variable is site and request overridable, see Site Settings and Request Overrides.

info

Example:

MAX_RESULT_LIMIT=30
MAX_RESULT_LIMITS=query-datasource:1000,list-datasources:20

This means that:

  • The query-datasource tool can return up to 1000 results.
  • The list-datasources tool can return up to 20 data sources.
  • Every other tool is limited to 30 results.
  • Default: Empty string (no limits)
  • For a list of available tools and groups, see toolName.ts.
  • Only applies to tools that have a limit parameter and return an array of items.
  • Tool names take precedence over tool group names. That is, datasource:1000,list-datasources:20 means that the list-datasources tool can return up to 20 data sources but the query-datasource tool can only return up to 1000 results.
  • If a tool is not included in the comma-separated list, the global limit specified by the MAX_RESULT_LIMIT variable will be used instead.
  • Each limit must be a positive number, or * to indicate unbounded results.

DISABLE_QUERY_DATASOURCE_VALIDATION_REQUESTS​

Disables requests that are made to the VizQl Data Service for validating queries in the query-datasource tool. Does not disable the ability to query the datasource. This variable is site and request overridable, see Site Settings and Request Overrides.

  • Default: false
  • When true, skips validation of queries against metadata results and validation of SET and MATCH filters.

DISABLE_QUERY_DATASOURCE_FILTER_VALIDATION​

Note: This environment variable was deprecated in Tableau MCP v1.13.0 and replaced by DISABLE_QUERY_DATASOURCE_VALIDATION_REQUESTS.

Disable validation of SET and MATCH filter values in the query-datasource tool.

  • Default: false
  • When true, skips the validation that checks if filter values exist in the target field.

DISABLE_METADATA_API_REQUESTS​

Disables graphql requests to the Tableau Metadata API in the get-datasource-metadata tool. This variable is site and request overridable, see Site Settings and Request Overrides.

  • Default: false
  • When true, skips requests to the graphql endpoint that provides additional context to field metadata.
  • Set this to true if you are using the get-datasource-metadata tool and the Tableau Metadata API is not enabled on your Tableau Server.

DISABLE_SESSION_MANAGEMENT​

When false (the default) and using the Streamable HTTP transport, the MCP server will create and manage sessions as per the Session Management section of the MCP spec. The only state persisted in the session from one request to another is information about the client's identity, capabilities, and protocol version compatibility.

  • Default: false
  • Does not apply to the stdio transport.
  • When true, the MCP server will no longer assign a session ID at initialization time nor require clients to provide that session ID in the mcp-session-id header for subsequent requests.
  • Set this to true if you are using the HTTP transport and your client does not support or need session management.

TABLEAU_SERVER_VERSION_CHECK_INTERVAL_IN_HOURS​

Some tools may have behavior or arguments that depend on the Tableau Server or Cloud version the MCP server is connected to. Rather than checking the Tableau version with every request, the MCP server will cache the version and only check it again after the interval specified by this environment variable.

  • Default: 1 hour
  • Must be a positive number between 1 and 168 (7 days).

TELEMETRY_PROVIDER​

The telemetry provider to use for metrics collection.

  • Default: noop
  • Possible values:

TELEMETRY_PROVIDER_CONFIG​

Configuration for the custom telemetry provider. Required when TELEMETRY_PROVIDER is custom.

  • Format: JSON string with at least a module field
  • The module field should be a path to a JavaScript file or npm package that exports a class implementing the TelemetryProvider interface.

Example:

TELEMETRY_PROVIDER_CONFIG='{"module": "./my-telemetry-provider.js"}'

The custom provider module should export a default class (or named export TelemetryProvider) that implements the TelemetryProvider interface.

FEATURE_GATE_PROVIDER​

The feature gate provider to use for feature flag management.

  • Default: server
  • Possible values:
    • server - File-based feature gate using features.json (default, for on-premise Tableau Server)
    • custom - Load a custom feature gate provider from a user-specified module
Custom Provider

To use a custom feature gate provider, set FEATURE_GATE_PROVIDER=custom and provide the module path via FEATURE_GATE_PROVIDER_CONFIG:

FEATURE_GATE_PROVIDER=custom
FEATURE_GATE_PROVIDER_CONFIG='{"module":"./my-feature-gate.js"}'

The custom provider module should export a default class or named export FeatureGateProvider that implements the FeatureGateProvider interface.

FEATURE_GATE_PROVIDER_CONFIG​

Configuration for custom feature gate providers (JSON string).

  • Required when: FEATURE_GATE_PROVIDER is custom
  • Format: {"module": "<path-to-module>", ...additional-config}

The module field can be:

  • A relative file path (e.g., ./my-provider.js) - resolved from process working directory
  • An absolute file path (e.g., /path/to/provider.js)
  • An npm package name (e.g., @company/feature-gate-provider)

Example:

FEATURE_GATE_PROVIDER_CONFIG='{"module":"./providers/cloud-feature-gate.js"}'

LATENCY_METRIC_NAME​

The name of the histogram metric used to record HTTP request latency for tool calls.

  • Default: http_server_1agg1_request_duration
  • Only recorded for requests that contain a tool call (non-tool requests such as initialize are not tracked).

Example:

LATENCY_METRIC_NAME=http_server_1agg1_request_duration

PRODUCT_TELEMETRY_ENABLED​

Enables product telemetry for tool usage tracking.

PRODUCT_TELEMETRY_ENDPOINT​

The URL product telemetry events are sent to.

  • Default: https://prod.telemetry.tableausoftware.com
  • If the value is not a valid URL, the server logs one error on the first tool call and sends no product telemetry. Credentials in the URL (https://user:pass@host) also count as invalid.

IS_HYPERFORCE​

Set to true to mark the deployment as Hyperforce. Sent as is_hyperforce on every product telemetry event.

  • Default: false

TABLEAU_POD_NAME​

Desktop only. The server URL Desktop is signed in to. Sent as pod and podname on every product telemetry event. The web variants send the value of SERVER instead (SERVER wins if both are set).

TABLEAU_DATA_APP_WORKSPACE_DIR​

Desktop only. Absolute directory where scaffold-data-app writes durable data-app package trees. Relative or unset values are ignored; the tool then fails with an actionable error instead of writing relative to the process working directory.

TABLEAU_SITE_LUID, TABLEAU_USER_LUID, TABLEAU_CHAT_ID, TABLEAU_DESKTOP_SESSION_LUID​

Desktop only. Set by the launcher (Tableau Desktop and its agent), not by hand. They are sent as site_luid, user_luid, chat_id and session_id on Desktop product telemetry events. Each is empty if the launcher did not set it. TABLEAU_DESKTOP_SESSION_LUID is ignored unless it is a well-formed GUID.

Product telemetry fields​

Every event also carries type, host_timestamp (UTC time of the call), service_name (tableau-mcp), podname and is_hyperforce.

FieldWebDesktop
tool_name, request_idyesyes
session_idMCP session ID, empty on stdioTABLEAU_DESKTOP_SESSION_LUID, empty if unset
site_luid, user_luidfrom the signed-in sessionTABLEAU_SITE_LUID, TABLEAU_USER_LUID
chat_idnot sentTABLEAU_CHAT_ID
successyesyes
error_codeempty on success. On failure, the HTTP status of the error, empty if the error result carries none, or 500 for a thrown error without onestatus code of a typed tool error, else empty
error_messagetext of the tool's error result (free text)stable error type slug only (for example args-validation), empty for untyped errors
auth_typepat, uat, direct-trust, embedded-oauth, tableau-oauth, passthrough or unknowndesktop
oauth_client_id, oauth_client_display_nameOAuth client of the caller, if anyempty

The web record-event tool (used only by MCP apps, behind the mcp-apps feature flag) also sends a separate tableau_mcp_event with event_type, message (text supplied by the calling app, cut to 1024 characters), site_luid and user_luid. Calling it also sends the usual tool_call event.

FLOW_READ_TOOLS_ENABLED​

Controls the read-only Tableau Prep flow tools. They are enabled by default.

  • Default: unset, which enables the read-only flow tools
  • Set to true to enable them explicitly. Any other value is treated as unset
  • Set to false to disable them
  • The mutating flow tools are controlled separately by FLOW_WRITE_TOOLS_ENABLED
  • When enabled, registers:
  • When disabled, these tools are not registered, and the tableau:mcp:flow:read scope is neither advertised nor accepted. REST API scopes that an enabled tool still uses stay advertised. For example, run-flow uses tableau:flows:read

FLOW_WRITE_TOOLS_ENABLED​

Controls the content-mutating Tableau Prep flow tools. They are enabled by default. A confirmed run consumes Tableau Prep Conductor capacity and can overwrite flow outputs. Each tool previews the change first and returns a single-use confirmation token. The tool makes the change only when it's called again with that token, after the user approves the preview.

  • Default: unset, which enables the mutating flow tools
  • Set to true to enable them explicitly. Any other value is treated as unset
  • Set to false to disable them
  • The read-only flow tools are controlled separately by FLOW_READ_TOOLS_ENABLED
  • When enabled, registers:
    • run-flow — run a flow on demand (Run Flow Now)
    • run-flow-task — run an existing scheduled task now (Run Flow Task)
    • cancel-flow-run — request cancellation of a flow run (Cancel Flow Run)
  • When disabled, these tools are not registered, and the tableau:mcp:flow:run and tableau:mcp:flow:cancel scopes are neither advertised nor accepted. Their REST API scopes (tableau:flows:run, tableau:flow_tasks:run, and tableau:flow_runs:update) are not advertised
  • These tools require Data Management with Tableau Prep Conductor, and the site's Run Now setting must be enabled. They honor the caller's flow permissions and the server's INCLUDE_PROJECT_IDS / INCLUDE_TAGS bounded context
  • Known REST API minimums are preflighted before mutation (run-flow: 3.14+; cancel-flow-run: 3.10+). License, site-setting, deployment, and permission failures are surfaced from Tableau's REST error details
  • You can still remove individual flow tools with EXCLUDE_TOOLS, or remove all of them with EXCLUDE_TOOLS=flow
FLOW_READ_TOOLS_ENABLEDFLOW_WRITE_TOOLS_ENABLEDRegistered flow tools
unset or trueunset or trueread-only and mutating flow tools
unset or truefalseread-only flow tools
falseunset or truemutating flow tools
falsefalsenone

KNOWLEDGE_TOOLS_ENABLED​

Controls the read-only Tableau Knowledge tools. They are disabled by default.

  • Default: unset, which leaves the read-only Knowledge tools disabled
  • Set to true to enable them. Any other value is treated as unset
  • Set to false to disable them
  • When true, the tools appear only on sites where Tableau Knowledge is available. The server checks this when it registers tools, as it does for other site-dependent tools. If the site rejects the check (for example, the request isn't authorized), the tools are left out as unavailable. If the check fails with a temporary error, they are left out with a warning that the error is likely transient
  • When enabled, registers:
  • When disabled, these tools are not registered, and the tableau:mcp:knowledge:read scope is neither advertised nor accepted
  • The mutating Knowledge tool is controlled by KNOWLEDGE_WRITE_TOOLS_ENABLED, and also needs this setting on

KNOWLEDGE_WRITE_TOOLS_ENABLED​

Controls the content-mutating Tableau Knowledge tool. It is disabled by default. Changes are shared with everyone and every agent that uses the Knowledge graph.

  • Default: unset, which leaves the mutating Knowledge tool disabled
  • Set to true to enable it. Any other value is treated as unset
  • Set to false to disable it
  • Unlike the flow settings, this one does not stand alone: the tool is registered only when the read-only Knowledge tools are also enabled (see KNOWLEDGE_TOOLS_ENABLED)
  • When enabled, registers:
  • When disabled, the tool is not registered, the tableau:mcp:knowledge:write scope is neither advertised nor accepted, and the tableau:knowledge:write REST API scope is not advertised
  • The tool requires the Creator site role or higher
KNOWLEDGE_TOOLS_ENABLEDKNOWLEDGE_WRITE_TOOLS_ENABLEDRegistered Knowledge tools
truetrueread-only and mutating Knowledge tools
trueunset or falseread-only Knowledge tools
unset or falseany valuenone

ADMIN_TOOLS_ENABLED​

Enables admin-only tools that require site administrator permissions.

ADMIN_GATE_CACHE_TTL_MINUTES​

TTL (in minutes) for caches used by admin-only tools. Affects:

  • Admin role lookups (assertAdmin)

  • Admin Insights dataset LUID resolution

  • Project ID → name resolution used by query-admin-insights (kind: "stale-content")

  • Default: 5

  • Minimum: 1

  • Maximum: 1440 (24 hours)

Tune lower if site role / project metadata changes need to propagate faster. Tune higher under memory pressure to reduce REST traffic.

MUTATION_PREVIEW_TTL_MINUTES​

TTL (in minutes) for the single-use confirmation tokens minted by the preview phase of two-phase mutation tools (e.g. delete-content). A token must be supplied on the confirmed call before it expires, otherwise the caller must re-run the preview.

  • Default: 5
  • Minimum: 1
  • Maximum: 1440 (24 hours)

Tune lower to shorten the window in which a preview token is valid. Tune higher to give callers more time between preview and confirmation.

STALE_CONTENT_MIN_AGE_DAYS​

Default minimum days since last access for content to be considered stale by the query-admin-insights tool's kind: "stale-content" backend. Callers can pass an explicit minAgeDays argument to override per-call.

  • Default: 90
  • Minimum: 1
  • Maximum: 3650 (10 years)

Overridable per-site via Site Settings and per-request via Request Overrides.

PENDING_DELETION_MAX_AGE_DAYS​

The oldest cleanup batch, in days, that a delete-content confirm still accepts for a workbook or data source. A confirm whose cleanupDate is older is rejected with cleanup-batch-expired and nothing is deleted, so a pending-deletion-YYYY-MM-DD marker left by a crashed or abandoned preview stops authorizing deletes on its own. The marker itself is not removed — clear it with delete-content with action: "remove-pending-tags".

Set it longer than any grace/notification window you use between tagging and deleting.

  • Default: 30
  • Minimum: 1
  • Maximum: 90 (a batch older than this could never be previewed-then-confirmed in practice)

Out-of-range or non-numeric values fall back to the default. Not overridable per site or per request.

STALE_CONTENT_MAX_ROWS​

Maximum number of stale-content rows the query-admin-insights tool's kind: "stale-content" backend will return in a single call. This is a server-side safety cap that protects the destructive stale-content cleanup flow from acting on an unreviewed mass set.

When the stale-item count exceeds this cap, the tool withholds the row payload (rows: []) and returns a structured ROW_CAP_EXCEEDED warning in mcp.warnings. The totalStaleItems and totalStaleSizeBytes fields still report the true pre-cap totals so callers can see the magnitude and narrow scope (e.g. a specific projectIds subset or a higher minAgeDays) before re-running.

  • Default: 100
  • Minimum: 1
  • Maximum: 10000

Overridable per-site via Site Settings and per-request via Request Overrides.

LICENSE_RECLAIM_INACTIVE_DAYS​

Default minimum days of inactivity before a user is considered a license reclamation candidate by the user-license-reclamation-inform prompt. Callers can pass an explicit inactiveDays argument to override per-invocation.

  • Default: 90
  • Minimum: 1
  • Maximum: 3650 (10 years)

LICENSE_RECLAIM_ROLES​

Comma-separated list of site roles targeted for license reclamation by the user-license-reclamation-inform prompt. Callers can pass an explicit roles argument to override per-invocation.

  • Default: Creator,Explorer
  • Values must be valid Tableau site role names (e.g., Creator, Explorer, Viewer).

BREAK_GLASS_DISABLE_GLOBALLY​

Can be used to force all MCP tools to return a "service unavailable" error message. Use with discretion.

  • Default: false
  • When true, all tools will return the below result:
{
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "text",
      "text": "The Tableau MCP server is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."
    }
  ],
  "isError": true
}

CSP_ALLOWED_DOMAINS​

A comma-separated list of domains to allow in the Content-Security-Policy header for MCP apps.

  • Default: https://*.online.tableau.com,https://*.tableau.com
  • The configured SERVER origin is automatically appended to this list.
  • Use this to quickly add or modify allowed domains without requiring a code change and release.

Example:

CSP_ALLOWED_DOMAINS=https://*.mycompany.tableau.com,https://*.online.tableau.com

This allows embedding Tableau visualizations from custom Tableau Server domains in addition to the default Tableau Cloud domains.

MCP_S3_BUCKET​

Enables offloading rendered view images to Amazon S3. When set, the get-view-image and get-custom-view-image tools upload the rendered image to this bucket and return a short-lived presigned URL (as a resource_link content block) instead of inlining the image as base64. The client fetches the image bytes directly from S3, so the image never streams back through the MCP server on read.

  • Default: unset (feature disabled — tools return inline base64, the original behavior).
  • When set, must be a valid S3 bucket name (lowercase letters, numbers, dots, and hyphens only).
  • AWS credentials are resolved via the default AWS SDK credential chain (IAM role / instance profile / standard AWS_* environment variables); no credentials are read from the MCP config.
  • If an upload fails, the tool falls back to returning inline base64 and logs a warning, so image retrieval never hard-fails.

Example:

MCP_S3_BUCKET=tableau-images

AWS_DEFAULT_REGION​

The AWS region of the S3 bucket used for image offload.

  • Default: unset. If not set, the AWS SDK resolves the region from the environment via its standard credential/region chain.
  • Only relevant when MCP_S3_BUCKET is set.

Example:

AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-1

MCP_IMAGE_PREFIX​

The base key prefix (folder path) under which objects are stored in the bucket. Each tool appends its own segment to this base, so objects are namespaced per tool. Slashes are normalized automatically.

  • Default: unset (empty). When unset, each tool uses only its own segment.
  • Per-tool segments: get-view-image → view-images/, get-custom-view-image → custom-view-images/, get-view-data → view-data/, get-custom-view-data → custom-view-data/, download-workbook → workbook-files/, request-workbook-upload → workbook-uploads/, request-datasource-upload → datasource-uploads/.
  • Objects are tenant-scoped: the caller's Tableau site and user LUIDs follow the tool segment, as <base><tool-segment><siteLuid>/<userLuid>/<rest>. For example, with MCP_IMAGE_PREFIX=tableau/, a view image is keyed as tableau/view-images/<siteLuid>/<userLuid>/<viewId>/<uuid>.png. Unset, it is keyed as view-images/<siteLuid>/<userLuid>/<viewId>/<uuid>.png. Prefix-based lifecycle or scanning rules on a tool segment keep matching.
  • The LUIDs come from the authenticated session, never from tool input. A request whose session has no valid site or user LUID returns an error instead of writing an unscoped object. A staged upload can be published only by the user who requested it.
  • The data app template that scaffold-data-app writes is the exception: it is keyed as <base>data-app-templates/ without tenant LUIDs.
  • Only relevant when MCP_S3_BUCKET is set.

Example:

MCP_IMAGE_PREFIX=tableau/

FILE_TTL​

The lifetime of the presigned GET URL that is returned to the client. The value is in seconds. The link should be fetched promptly rather than stored.

  • Default: 30 (30 seconds).
  • Clamped to the range 5–900 (5 seconds–15 minutes).
  • Only relevant when MCP_S3_BUCKET is set.

Example:

FILE_TTL=30

Desktop​

The Tableau Desktop authoring server (build/index.desktop.js) reads these variables in addition to the shared ones above (for example TRANSPORT, which must be stdio, ENABLED_LOGGERS and TOOL_PROFILE). The combined variant reads them too. It builds the Desktop config at startup, so they apply there as well. Both entry points load a .env file from the working directory before reading the environment.

This section is one table on purpose: most of these are set by the app that launches the server, not by end users. Each row is tagged:

  • spawner: set by the app that launches the server. Not for end users.
  • dev/test: overrides for development and tests.
  • user: safe for anyone to set.

For numeric values, an unparseable value or a value below the minimum is ignored and the default is used (it is not raised to the minimum). A value above a clamp is lowered to the clamp.

VariableDefaultBoundsWhat it doesWho sets it
EPISODE_EVENTSoffexactly on enablesWrites episode events (JSON lines, episodes-<timestamp>.jsonl) to EPISODE_EVENTS_DIR.user
EPISODE_EVENTS_DIRFILE_LOGGER_DIRECTORYDirectory for the episode event files. The server never deletes these files; use a directory you clean up yourself. See FILE_LOGGER_DIRECTORY.user
INLINE_XML_MAX_BYTES16384minimum 1Largest XML returned inline by any get-XML tool (workbook, worksheet, dashboard, datasource, storyboard). Above it, the tool responds in file mode.user
INLINE_IMAGE_MAX_BYTES1048576 (1 MiB)minimum 1Largest image returned inline by the export-image tools and capture-window-screenshot. SVG counts about twice its decoded size, because it is sent as both text and an image block. Above the cap, the tool writes a cache file and returns its path.user
IMAGE_EXPORT_TIMEOUT_MS30000minimum 1, clamped to 2147483647Deadline for the image-render call. Bounds a hang when Desktop is showing a blocking dialog.user
TABLEAU_DESKTOP_CALL_TIMEOUT_MS60000minimum 40000, clamped to 2147483647Wall-clock ceiling on one Desktop tool call. Past it the call aborts and the agent is told Desktop stopped answering. A value under 40000 is ignored and 60000 is used.user
TABLEAU_DESKTOP_SESSION_IDnonemust be digits only (a Desktop pid)Pins the Desktop instance session-scoped tools default to. The agent can still target another open Desktop. Anything that is not a pid is ignored.spawner
TABLEAU_USER_AGENT_PREFIXnonea single name/version product token; anything else is ignoredProduct token the launcher puts at the front of the External Client API User-Agent, ahead of tableau-desktop-mcp/<version>. Desktop attributes each call to the leading token. Tableau Agent sets tableau-agent/<version>.spawner
TABLEAU_EXTERNAL_API_DISCOVERY_DIROS default root: %LOCALAPPDATA% on Windows (~\AppData\Local if unset), ~/Library/Application Support on macOS, $XDG_DATA_HOME (else ~/.local/share) on Linux. Two folders are searched, in order: <root>/Tableau/Tableau/ExternalApi, then <root>/Tableau/ExternalApiDirectory searched for running Desktop instances. When set, it is the only directory searched.dev/test
TABLEAU_EXPERTISE_DIRnone (the expertise corpus is empty)Authoring expertise roots served as expertise:// resources. Separate several roots with the OS path delimiter (: on macOS and Linux, ; on Windows). Earlier roots win on a name collision.spawner
TEMPLATES_DIRthe bundled templates directoryReplaces the whole template catalog with this directory.dev/test
TABLEAU_REPOSITORY_DIRnoneAdds three external template folders under this directory, in order: Tableau Agent/templates/.vendored/overridable, Bookmarks, then Tableau Agent/templates. A later folder overrides a bundled or earlier template with the same name. Ignored when TEMPLATES_DIR is set.spawner
WORKBOOK_XSD_PATHthe bundled workbook XSDWorkbook XSD file for the search library. No registered tool reads it now.dev/test
TWB_INDEX_PATHthe bundled workbook example indexJSON index of example workbooks. No registered tool reads it now. A path that does not exist gives an empty index.dev/test
EXAMPLES_DIRthe bundled examplesDirectory of .json and .md examples for the search library. No registered tool reads it now. When set, even to an empty string, only this directory is read and the bundled examples are not used. An empty string or a missing directory gives no examples.dev/test
SYSTEM_PROMPT_VERSIONmcp-server@<server version>Sent as system_prompt_version on the episode-begin event only.spawner
AGENT_TYPESnoneComma-separated agent types, sent as agent_types on the episode-begin event only. Blank entries are dropped.spawner
LANGSMITH_RUN_ID, LANGSMITH_TRACE_IDnoneSent as langsmith_run_id on the episode-begin event only. LANGSMITH_RUN_ID wins when both are set.spawner
ENABLE_FILTER_GUARDRAILoffexactly true enablesBlocks a proposal with more than 5 categorical filter controls. Any other value, including false, 0 and 1, leaves it off.dev/test
ALLOW_SKIP_VALIDATIONfalseexactly true enablesTurns off the bind-template preflight. With it set, a caller can pass skip_validation to bind-template and skip validation of the proposal before apply. Only a trusted spawner that builds proposals in code should set it. Never set it for an ordinary agent session.spawner
TABLEAU_POD_NAME, TABLEAU_SITE_LUID, TABLEAU_USER_LUID, TABLEAU_CHAT_ID, TABLEAU_DESKTOP_SESSION_LUIDnoneProduct telemetry context. See TABLEAU_POD_NAME and the LUID and chat id variables.spawner
TABLEAU_MCP_CACHE_DIR<bundle dir>/../cacheabsolute path; blank or relative ignoredDirectory for cache files (cached XML, exported images) and the only place read-cached-xml and write-cached-xml accept. Tableau Agent sets a per-session directory so concurrent sessions do not share cache files.spawner
PRODUCT_TELEMETRY_ENABLED, PRODUCT_TELEMETRY_ENDPOINT, IS_HYPERFORCESee PRODUCT_TELEMETRY_ENABLED, PRODUCT_TELEMETRY_ENDPOINT and IS_HYPERFORCE.spawner