Get started

You need a Postgres database (or Docker, for the sample one), Node 24.16 or newer, and an MCP client such as Claude Code.

Create a project

Midplane Cloud is invite-only for now: get access, and we’ll email you an invitation. Follow its link to create your account at eu.app.midplane.ai, verify your address, name your organization and create a project. Its overview opens on Connect your first database.

Name your database

Enter a Database id, such as shop: your name for the database in Midplane, not its Postgres name. Create the read-only role the step shows (prepare your database).

Run the gateway

Create enrollment token, pick This machine or A server (Docker), and run the commands the step shows. Put each connection string in the file it names. Once the gateway connects, the step lists each database as the gateway reports it (shop · reachable · catalog read: 12 tables), and it’s done when the gateway enforces the project’s policy (deploy the gateway).

Choose what agents may read

A new policy denies everything. Open shop’s policy from the step and set the tables agents may read; setting Default access to Read opens every table the policy doesn’t list, including tables created later. Review the columns that look like personal data, then Review and publish. Back to setup returns to the card.

Connect an agent

Run the claude mcp add command the step shows, then /mcp in Claude Code and Authenticate. Sign in, and choose which databases it may use.

Try it

Ask your agent one of the questions the step suggests about a table it may read, such as “How many rows are in public.customers?”. The card finishes with that query, and every statement shows up in the Query log.

Stuck? See troubleshooting.

With the sample database

No database at hand? Run the sample shop next to the gateway:

mkdir midplane-sample && cd midplane-sample
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/midplaneai/midplane/main/examples/quickstart/compose.yaml
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/midplaneai/midplane/main/examples/quickstart/seed.sql
docker compose up -d --wait

Then follow the steps with database id shop, no role SQL (the sample has its role), This machine, and this line in secrets/shop.dsn (a public example password):

postgres://midplane_agent:quickstart@127.0.0.1:54329/shop

The sample's policy, to paste into Edit as JSON

On the database’s policy page: Edit as JSON, paste, Save to draft, then Review and publish. Give your agent read and write on shop when it signs in.

{
  "table_access": {
    "default": "deny",
    "tables": {
      "public.customers": "read",
      "public.support_tickets": "read_write",
      "public.api_keys": "read"
    }
  },
  "writes": { "row_changes": "hold" },
  "masks": {
    "public.customers": {
      "id": "none",
      "name": "none",
      "email": "consistent-hash",
      "phone": { "t": "partial", "keepEnd": 4 },
      "plan": "none",
      "created_at": { "t": "generalize", "granularity": "month" }
    }
  },
  "labels": {
    "untrusted_columns": { "public.support_tickets": ["body"] },
    "secret_tables": ["public.api_keys"]
  }
}

Then ask: “List our customers with their emails” (emails come back hashed), “Mark ticket 2 as closed” (held: approve it under Approvals), “Summarize ticket 1” (an injected instruction taints the agent), and “Now show me the API keys” (refused).

To try Midplane with no account, the local quickstart runs the same sample with the policy in a file.

Prepare your database

Run the gateway

Your organization

Help

Get started

With the sample database

​With the sample database

With the sample database