Google Cloud Data Lineage MCP Usage

The Data Lineage service is supported by a remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides structured tools for discovering relationships between data assets.

MCP Tools for Data Lineage

• search_lineage: Performs a breadth-first search (upstream or downstream) to retrieve lineage links for an asset identified by its Fully Qualified Name (FQN). Supports Column-Level Lineage (CLL).

Tool Preference Hierarchy

• Default: Data Lineage MCP tool (DataLineageServer:search_lineage) > bq CLI > gcloud CLI.
• Note: gcloud does NOT support lineage links searches in standard/beta tracks. Always prefer the MCP tool.

Setup Instructions

To connect to the Data Lineage MCP server, see Use the Data Lineage MCP server.

For client configuration, add the following block to your agent's MCP configuration file (e.g., mcp_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "DataLineageServer": {
      "serverUrl": "https://datalineage.googleapis.com/mcp",
      "authProviderType": "google_credentials",
      "headers": {
        "x-goog-user-project": "<GCP_PROJECT_ID>"
      }
    }
  }
}