Access-MCP for VS Code

Give your AI agent a live connection to Microsoft Access.

Access-MCP is a purpose-built Model Context Protocol server for Microsoft Access. This extension bundles it, registers it with VS Code's built-in MCP client, and adds a browsable object tree — so Copilot agent mode can read schema, run SQL, and work with VBA and forms against a live .accdb / .mdb file.

Windows + a locally installed Microsoft Access are required. There is no Mac, Linux, cloud, or Docker version — the server automates a real copy of Access via COM.

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What you get

97 tools packed into 27 smart tools — schema and object listing, SELECT and DDL/DML execution, VBA read/write and compile, form and report design, data import/export, and session control. Your agent loads 27 tool definitions instead of 97 — less context spent on tool lists, fewer wrong calls and retries, fewer tokens per task. Purpose-built for Access rather than a generic ODBC wrapper, so it understands queries, forms, reports, macros, modules and linked tables as first-class objects.

A Connections view in the sidebar — add as many Access databases as you work with; each one is a connection with its own name and color, and each one you open for agents is its own MCP server. Browse Tables (with Fields and Indexes), Queries, Forms, Reports, Macros, Modules, Linked Tables and References. Open a query's SQL or a module's VBA in a real editor tab. Preview table and query data in a filterable grid. The tree always opens a database read-only, so browsing never competes with your agent for Access locks.

A safety model you control — you decide which tools the agent may call. Grant only read tools and the agent physically cannot write. Every write is recorded in a timestamped audit trail.

Requirements

Getting started

1. Install the extension and open the Access-MCP view in the Activity Bar.
2. Click Sign In (no credit card needed). Your browser opens on the sign-in page; confirm the code shown in the editor and sign in with Microsoft, Google or GitHub. The view switches to Add Connection by itself once the sign-in is done.
3. Click Add Connection and pick your .accdb, .mdb or .adp file. It appears in the Connections view; expand it to browse. The tree opens it read-only, with the Access window hidden, and only when you expand one of its categories.
4. Open for Agents (the plug icon on the connection, or right-click) gives your agent an MCP server named after the file — RamControl.accdb for RamControl.accdb. With msAccessMcp.autoRegisterMcp on (the default), Add Connection does this for you. Close for Agents takes the server away again.
5. Add every database you need. Each one is its own connection and, once open for agents, its own MCP server, so an agent can work with several Access files side by side. Right-click a connection to rename it, give it a color, make it read-only for agents, reveal the file, or remove it.

A database you selected in an earlier version is added to Connections by itself on first start, together with every database already registered in the open folder.

Upgrading from 2.5.x. Your agent keeps its Access server:

• An entry that Register Server in mcp.json (Cursor) wrote (usually ms-access) started the exe inside the old extension folder, which the update deletes. The first time the editor opens that folder (in Cursor also ~/.cursor/mcp.json), the extension takes the entry over: it keeps its name and its --read-only, starts the stable copy from then on, and its database is added to Connections. A message says what was repaired. Entries the extension did not write are never touched.
• VS Code: the database selected in 2.5.x stays available to VS Code's agent in each workspace, as before, without writing any file (set up once per workspace, on the first 2.7.0 start there).
• Cursor without such an entry: 2.5.x gave the agent nothing there either, so no file is written; a one-time notice offers Open for Agents on the database.

Where the MCP server is registered

With a folder open, both files are written whichever editor you use. The extension only adds and removes its own entries: other servers, other keys and the file's formatting stay as they are, and a file that is not valid JSON is never overwritten — you are asked what to do with it. Your client may ask you once to enable or approve a new server. Which connections are open for agents is decided per folder.

With no folder open, Cursor uses its global ~/.cursor/mcp.json. VS Code writes no file then: Open for Agents offers the server to VS Code's own agent only, and that choice is shared by every VS Code window without a folder.

--read-only never leaves an entry by itself. When an entry the extension manages starts its server with --read-only (added by hand, or by an earlier version) while the connection is writable, the extension keeps the flag and marks the connection read-only. Only Toggle Read-only for Agents and Open for Agents write the connection's own setting into its entries, which is how the flag is removed. Turning the global msAccessMcp.readOnly off is such a choice too: the flag leaves every entry whose connection is not read-only on its own.

The entries start a copy of the server kept in the extension's global storage, not the one inside the extension folder, so they keep working after the extension updates. The copy of every version is kept (about 114 MB each), so an entry in a folder you only open from Claude Code keeps working too; delete old bin/<version> folders from the extension's global storage yourself if you need the space.

Set msAccessMcp.autoRegisterMcp to false to choose per connection with Open for Agents, or to manage these files yourself. Access-MCP: Re-sync MCP Server Registration (mcp.json) writes the entries of every connection open for agents again. Re-sync, Toggle Read-only for Agents and Open for Agents rewrite an entry a connection already has in place, under its name, and add one to a project file that lacks it. While a connection's entry is a repaired one in ~/.cursor/mcp.json, no project entry is added next to it, so Cursor's agent never gets two servers for one database.

One Access process per database

The object tree and every agent working on the same file share a single Microsoft Access process, so they see the same state and never lock each other out. The process closes by itself shortly after the last client disconnects — closing the editor does not leave the database open. Set msAccessMcp.sharedHost to false to give each server its own private Access instance instead.

Licensing

Access-MCP is proprietary software from A-Point Systems Ltd. Sign in once per machine (Microsoft, Google or GitHub) to get a 14-day full trial, after which a forever-free read-only tier remains available. Pro unlocks writes, VBA, forms and batch operations. See pricing and the EULA.

Settings

Changing a setting rewrites the entries in mcp.json right away; an agent applies them the next time it starts the server. Closing Access outside VS Code disconnects the tree; it reconnects on next use.

Commands

• Sign In — sign in through the browser; needed once per Windows user. No credit card: a 14-day full trial, then a free read-only plan.
• Add Connection — pick an .accdb, .mdb or .adp file to add to the Connections view.
• Open for Agents / Close for Agents — add the connection's MCP server to the open folder's mcp.json files (and VS Code's agent), or remove it.
• Toggle Read-only for Agents — start this connection's agent server with --read-only.
• Rename Connection, Set Connection Color, Refresh Connection, Reveal in File Explorer, Remove Connection
• Preview Data — open a table or query in the data grid.
• Filter Group by Name… — each group (Tables, Queries, Forms, ...) of each connection has its own filter, as in APoint-ms-sql. Click the filter icon on a group, or select a group or an object in it and press Ctrl+F, then type part of a name (case-insensitive). The group filters as you type; Enter keeps the filter and Esc restores the one it had. It shows only the matching objects and reads filter: <text> · <shown> of <total>, and the view title shows how many groups are filtered. Object names only: fields and indexes are not searched. Clear Group Filter (the icon next to it) clears one group; Clear All Filters in the view title clears every group. Filters are kept across restarts, and a filter never opens a connection by itself: a group you have not expanded loads nothing until you expand it.
• Open Code / SQL — open VBA or query SQL in an editor.
• Refresh — reload the object lists, Fields and Indexes, which the tree keeps until then. A load that failed is tried again here, or when you expand that node again.
• Restart Server, Show Logs, Show Version
• Re-sync MCP Server Registration (mcp.json)

Troubleshooting

Run Access-MCP: Show Logs and set "msAccessMcp.logLevel": "debug" to see tool calls, timings and errors (trace logs full payloads; credentials are masked).

Deploying to a team? See the server install guide for multi-user and shared-binary setups.

Also from A-Point Systems

• MSSQL-MCP — our MCP server for SQL Server. Install it from the VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX. Pair it with Access-MCP to drive an Access → SQL Server modernization from one agent.
• Modernize & migrate and support services for mission-critical Access systems.

_{Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Microsoft. Microsoft, Microsoft Access, Visual Studio Code and their logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. Access-MCP automates a copy of Microsoft Access that you license and install yourself; no Microsoft software is redistributed with this extension.}