Tableau
Tableau is a visual analytics platform transforming the way we use data to solve problems
Verdict
Common use cases
- Audit stale workbooks before quarterly reviews
- Generate user access reports for compliance
- Find data sources by owner or project
- Check job status during ETL troubleshooting
- List groups and members for offboarding
Integration
- Vendor
- Tableau
- Category
- developer-tools
- Auth
- API_KEY
- Tools
- 10
- Composio slug
tableau
Tools
- Get Current Session
Return the Tableau site and user identity established by the connected PAT, including their LUIDs and the user's current site role.
- Get Server Info
Return the connected Tableau deployment's product, build, and supported REST API versions. This public endpoint checks deployment compatibility but does not validate the PAT.
- Get Workbook
Return one Tableau workbook by LUID, including its project, owner, tags, views, and freshness settings when available.
- List Data Sources
List published data sources visible to the connected PAT on its signed-in Tableau site, with optional filtering and sorting, one page at a time.
- List Groups
List groups the connected PAT is permitted to see on its signed-in Tableau site, with optional filtering and sorting, one page at a time.
- List Jobs
List active asynchronous jobs the connected PAT is permitted to see on its signed-in Tableau site, optionally narrowed with a Tableau filter expression, one page at a time.
- List Projects
List projects visible to the connected PAT on its signed-in Tableau site, with optional filtering and sorting, one page at a time.
- List Users
List users the connected PAT is permitted to see on its signed-in Tableau site, with optional filtering and sorting, one page at a time.
- List Views
List views visible to the connected PAT on its signed-in Tableau site, with optional filtering, sorting, and usage statistics, one page at a time.
- List Workbooks
List workbooks visible to the connected PAT on its signed-in Tableau site, with optional filtering and sorting, one page at a time.
Setup
Setup guide
- 11. In Switchy, navigate to Settings → Integrations and click Connect next to Tableau. 2. Log in to your Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud instance and create a Personal Access Token under your account settings (My Account Settings → Personal Access Tokens → Create New Token). 3. Copy the token name and secret—you won't see the secret again. 4. Paste both into the Switchy connection form, along with your Tableau site URL (e.g., https://10ax.online.tableau.com or https://tableau.yourcompany.com). 5. Click Connect; Switchy validates the token by fetching your session identity. 6. Open any Project in Switchy and type '@Tableau list workbooks' to confirm the connection works—you should see a list of workbooks your token can access.
What teammates see: by default, memories from Tableau are scoped to the Project (PROJECT visibility) - you can mark any memory PRIVATE or share it ORG-wide.
Works well with
Top models
Compatibility data appears once enough Projects have used this MCP together with a given model.
How Switchy teams use it
Starter prompts
Audit Stale Dashboards
@Tableau list all workbooks and show me which ones haven't been updated in the last 90 days, grouped by project.
Find Data Source Owner
@Tableau find the data source named 'Sales Pipeline' and tell me who owns it, which project it lives in, and when it was last published.
User Access Report
@Tableau list all users on this site, grouped by site role, and include their last sign-in date if available.
Check Extract Refresh Jobs
@Tableau show me all active jobs right now and flag any that have been running for more than 30 minutes.
Project Inventory
@Tableau list all projects and for each one tell me how many workbooks and data sources it contains.
Example outputs
Illustrative - representative of the model's voice and quality, not literal recordings.
@tableau show me all active extract-refresh jobs and flag any that have been running longer than 30 minutes
Currently 7 extract-refresh jobs are active on your Tableau site. One job exceeds the 30-minute threshold: 'Regional_Sales_Cube' (started 47 minutes ago, 68% complete, initiated by system schedule 'Nightly Refresh'). The remaining six jobs started within the last 15 minutes and are progressing normally. Job IDs and progress percentages are available if you need to investigate or cancel any job through the Tableau Server UI.
This example demonstrates how the list-jobs tool surfaces long-running operations that might indicate performance issues or stuck extracts. The MCP returns job type, start time, and progress; the AI calculates elapsed duration and applies your threshold. Only jobs the PAT is permitted to see will appear—typically those owned by the user or visible site-wide to admins.
Use-case deep-dives
When this MCP wins for BI governance at scale
A 6-person data team preparing for a quarterly business review needs to audit which dashboards are stale, who owns them, and which projects they live in. The Tableau MCP gives you List Projects, Get Workbook, and List Data Sources in one session—so you can script a sweep of 200+ workbooks, flag anything not refreshed in 30 days, and export a CSV of owner LUIDs and tags. The auth is a single PAT scoped to your site role, which means you don't need admin credentials if you're already a Creator or Explorer. This works until you hit multi-site deployments; then you need one PAT per site and the script gets messy. If your audit is a one-time sprint task, this MCP closes it in an afternoon.
When this MCP is overkill for front-line support
A 3-person support team fields tickets asking 'where's the revenue dashboard for Q3?' and wants to answer with a direct link. The Tableau MCP can List Workbooks and return view URLs, but you're burning 10 tools and a PAT setup to solve a search problem Tableau Server's native UI already handles. The MCP makes sense if you're embedding those lookups into a Slack bot or a custom support portal where the agent never leaves the chat window. Otherwise, teaching the team to bookmark the Tableau site or use its built-in search is faster and doesn't require token management. The threshold: if you're answering more than 20 dashboard-lookup tickets a week and they interrupt other work, automate it with this MCP.
When this MCP closes the access-provisioning gap
A 12-person analytics org onboards two new analysts every quarter and needs to verify they're added to the right Tableau groups, assigned to the correct projects, and have Creator licenses before day one. The Tableau MCP's List Users, List Groups, and Get Current Session tools let you script a pre-flight check: query the user LUID, confirm group membership, and log their site role in a shared onboarding doc. This beats manually clicking through the Tableau admin UI for each hire, especially when your HR system can trigger the script via webhook. The trade-off: if your Tableau site has fewer than 30 users total, the manual UI is still faster than maintaining the automation. If onboarding happens monthly or you manage multiple sites, this MCP pays for itself in the first quarter.
Frequently asked
What can the Tableau MCP do in Switchy?
It reads metadata from your Tableau deployment—workbooks, data sources, projects, users, groups, and running jobs. The MCP cannot publish new content or modify dashboards; it exists to surface Tableau's catalog and user roster so your AI agents can answer questions about what exists, who owns it, and where it lives without opening Tableau Server or Cloud.
Do I need admin access to connect Tableau?
No, but your Personal Access Token determines what the MCP sees. A site-viewer PAT will list only the workbooks and data sources that user can access. A site-admin PAT unlocks the full catalog, all users, and all groups. Generate the token in your Tableau account settings, then paste it into Switchy's API key field during setup.
Can the Tableau MCP refresh extracts or publish workbooks?
No. The ten tools are read-only—they query Tableau's REST API for metadata but cannot trigger refreshes, upload TWBX files, or change permissions. If your team needs to automate publishing or extract schedules, use Tableau's native REST API or tabcmd directly; the MCP is for discovery and inventory, not orchestration.
Why use this instead of just logging into Tableau Server?
Your AI agents can't log into a web UI. The MCP lets Claude or GPT answer questions like "Which workbooks use the Sales data source?" or "Who owns the Finance project?" without a human opening Tableau, clicking through projects, and copying names into a spreadsheet. It turns Tableau's catalog into structured data your prompts can query.
Who on my team should connect the Tableau MCP?
Whoever generates the PAT controls what the workspace sees. If you want agents to inventory the entire site, a Tableau site admin should connect it. If you only need visibility into a handful of projects, a project lead with viewer access is fine. The connection lives in your Switchy workspace and every member inherits the same Tableau view.