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Databricks Genie Code

Give Genie Code access to your enterprise data context in DataHub — find trustworthy data, understand lineage, look up ownership, and generate better SQL queries, all without leaving your notebook.

Genie Code querying DataHub catalog

Prerequisites​

  • A Databricks workspace with the Managed MCP Servers preview enabled
  • A DataHub instance with the MCP server enabled
  • A DataHub access token (personal access token or service account token)
  • CREATE CONNECTION privilege on your Unity Catalog metastore

Step 1: Register DataHub as an External MCP Server​

This creates a Unity Catalog HTTP connection to your DataHub MCP server. You only need to do this once — the same connection is used by Databricks Agent Bricks.

  1. In your Databricks workspace, go to Catalog > Connections > Create connection.

  2. Configure the connection:

    • Name: datahub (or your preferred name)
    • Connection type: HTTP
    • Auth type: Bearer Token
    • Bearer token: Your DataHub access token
    • Host: Your DataHub MCP server URL:
      • DataHub Cloud: https://<tenant>.acryl.io
      • Self-hosted: http://<gms-host>:8080
    • Base path: /integrations/ai/mcp (DataHub Cloud) or /mcp (self-hosted)

  3. Click Create connection.

  4. Grant access to users who need it: Go to Catalog > Connections > datahub > Permissions and grant USE CONNECTION to the appropriate users or groups.

Once created, the connection shows up under Agents > MCP Servers in your workspace.

Step 2: Add DataHub to Genie Code​

  1. Open Genie Code and click the Settings gear icon.

  2. Under MCP Servers, click Add Server.

  3. Select External MCP servers and choose the datahub connection you created above.

Add MCP Servers dialog showing External MCP: datahub

  1. Click Save.

Try It Out​

Switch to Agent mode in Genie Code and try:

Find all datasets related to "customer churn" and show me their owners
Search DataHub for datasets in the Marketing domain, then query the customer_segments
table to show me the top 10 segments by size

Tip: MCP servers require Genie Code Agent mode. There's a limit of 20 tools across all connected MCP servers.

Troubleshooting​

  • DataHub not showing up? Check the connection under Catalog > Connections, verify the MCP URL and base path, and confirm the bearer token is still valid.
  • 401 Unauthorized? Regenerate the DataHub access token and update the UC connection.
  • No tools discovered? Make sure DataHub's MCP server is enabled. Genie Code caps at 20 tools across all MCP servers. Base path is /integrations/ai/mcp (Cloud) or /mcp (self-hosted).

Links: MCP on Databricks · DataHub MCP Server · Agent Context Kit