MCP Server — Ask Claude About Your SELMA Data

selmaR includes a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets Claude query your SELMA instance in natural language. The server runs as a local JSON-RPC 2.0 stdio process and exposes 7 tools for exploring student management data.

Setup

Add the server to your Claude Code settings (~/.claude/settings.json or project .claude/settings.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "selmaR": {
      "command": "Rscript",
      "args": ["<path-to-selmaR>/inst/mcp/server.R"],
      "cwd": "<directory-containing-config.yml>"
    }
  }
}

The server reads credentials from config.yml in the working directory (same format as selma_connect()).

Tools

The MCP server exposes the following tools to Claude:

auth_status: Check connection and field policy status.
list_entities: List all available SELMA entity types with descriptions.
search_entities: Search entity types by keyword (case-insensitive, matches name and description).
describe_entity: Get per-column summary statistics for an entity. Returns aggregates only — never individual rows.
get_entity_summary: Get filtered/grouped aggregate statistics. Supports filter_by and group_by parameters.
get_efts_report: Generate an EFTS funding report by source and category for a given year.
execute_r: Execute R code in a sandboxed workspace with dplyr, tidyr, ggplot2, lubridate, and scales. Variables persist between calls. Code is inspected before execution — namespace access and I/O functions are blocked.

PII Protection (7 Defence Layers)

Student data is sensitive. The server enforces:

ID pseudonymisation — session-scoped deterministic hashing of all ID columns.
AST code inspection — blocked packages and functions in execute_r.
Input allowlisting — only the 7 tools above are exposed; no raw API access.
PII field policy — configurable YAML allowlist controls which columns are visible per entity (see inst/mcp/field_policy.yml).
Hybrid data access — structured tools return aggregates only, never individual rows.
Output scanning — regex and PII dictionary checks on all responses before they leave the server.
Audit logging — JSONL log of every tool call plus a session summary report.

Files

The MCP server consists of:

inst/mcp/server.R: Main MCP server (~1500 lines).
inst/mcp/field_policy.yml: Default PII field policy — controls which columns Claude can see for each entity.
inst/mcp/test_server.R: Test suite for the security layers.

MCP Server — Ask Claude About Your SELMA Data

Setup

Tools

PII Protection (7 Defence Layers)

Files

See also