Golang-native agentic platform engineering with embedded MCP

Demo code for a demonstration of Golang-native agentic platform engineering with embedded MCP.

StackQL treats cloud and SaaS providers as data sources accessed via SQL. Agents doing platform engineering, SRE and audit work need to query, reason about and act on actual running state, not on state files. The StackQL MCP server is the agent interface to that engine, with a small fixed tool surface and safety modes gating writes.

The stackql-mcp-go module embeds that server in a Go application, either as a sidecar (downloaded and sha256-verified at first run) or vendored straight into the Go application with go generate + go:embed (one self-contained binary, no network at run time), and hands you a connected modelcontextprotocol/go-sdk client. The worked examples are three small agents with the same four parts, model, prompts, context and MCP tools, on one shared anthropic-sdk-go agent loop: a repository governance audit over GitHub (zero credentials, server as a sidecar), an SRE assurance sweep over a service's footprint in AWS and Cloudflare (sidecar), and a FinOps report from Cost Explorer (server vendored into the binary). Every action an agent takes is a readable SQL statement.

Demo phases

Phase	Directory	What it shows	Needs
1	primer/	StackQL itself: stackql shell, stackql exec, stackql srv with psql and a Go app over the Postgres wire protocol (pgx)	stackql on PATH; AWS + Cloudflare for most blocks, none for the GitHub ones and the Go app
2	stacks/	stackql-deploy: a service's footprint across AWS and Cloudflare converged as data, a drift script, and a zero-credential GitHub variant	stackql-deploy on PATH; AWS + Cloudflare (or a GitHub token)
3	embedded/	Embedded MCP in Go: the smallest sidecar and vendored embeddings, three agents, and the reference app	Go 1.25+; ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for the agents

Phase 3, the programs (the suffix is how the server arrives):

Program	Server	What it does	Needs
minimal-sidecar	sidecar	StartServer, ModeReadOnly, github null_auth, list tools, one run_select_query, one refused run_mutation_query	nothing
minimal-vendored	vendored	the same program with the server compiled in: go generate once, then no network at run time	nothing
audit-agent-sidecar	sidecar	golden-path audit of a GitHub org and repo: licenses, topics, labels, branch protection; --repl for questions in turn	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
sre-agent-sidecar	sidecar	the morning assurance sweep over the service footprint: health, exposure, edge, governance	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, AWS_*, CLOUDFLARE_*, DEMO_*
finops-agent-vendored	vendored	the month-to-date FinOps report: spend by service from Cost Explorer, tagging gaps, waste	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, AWS_*
sandboxctl-vendored	vendored	the reference app: plans and prices in read_only, provisions in safe behind an approval gate, reap tears down in delete_safe	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS (tools needs neither)

Demo Runbook

Prep

# cp .env.example .env            # fill in AWS_*, CLOUDFLARE_*, DEMO_*, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
set -a; . ./.env; set +a
for p in aws awscc cloudflare github; do stackql exec "REGISTRY PULL $p"; done
go generate ./embedded/minimal-vendored ./embedded/finops-agent-vendored ./embedded/sandboxctl-vendored   # network: fetches the pinned bundle
go build ./...
go run ./embedded/minimal-sidecar                 # caches the sidecar server bundle (v0.11.669)
go run ./embedded/sre-agent-sidecar --check
go run ./embedded/finops-agent-vendored --check
stackql-deploy build stacks/service-footprint dev --env-file .env    # the footprint the shell join and the SRE sweep read; about 30 s

stackql Usage

shell examples:

stackql shell                    # paste 1.2 (discovery) and 1.13 (the cross-provider JOIN) from primer/shell.iql; 1.12 if there is time

exec examples:

stackql exec --output json "SELECT name, status, JSON_EXTRACT(plan, '$.name') AS plan FROM cloudflare.zones.zones" | jq .
stackql exec -i primer/queries/finops.iql --iqldata primer/queries/vars.jsonnet --var month=$(date +%Y-%m) --output csv

srv examples using the stackql engine over the Postgres wire protocol, from psql and from Go.

stackql srv --pgsrv.port 5466    # in a second terminal
psql -h localhost -p 5466 -U stackql -d stackql -c "SELECT instance_id, instance_type, JSON_EXTRACT(state, '$.name') AS state, public_ip_address AS ip FROM aws.ec2.instances WHERE region = '$AWS_REGION'"
# show primer/pgwire-go-app/main.go (pgx, simple query protocol, public GitHub data), then run it
go run ./primer/pgwire-go-app

MCP/SRE Examples

Break something (slide THE AGENT LOOP): someone changed it in the console. Each statement is printed before it runs.

stacks/service-footprint/drift.sh tag ssh edge   # drops the owner tag, opens port 22 to the world, deletes the A record

The agents, one sidecar and one vendored (slides SIDECAR DETAILED, VENDORED DETAILED, THE DEMOS).

ls ~/.stackql/mcp-server-bin/0.11.669/            # the sidecar server, downloaded and sha256-verified at first run
go run ./embedded/sre-agent-sidecar               # the sweep: one PASS, three ATTENTION, fixing SQL shown, not run
go build -o /tmp/finops-agent-vendored ./embedded/finops-agent-vendored && ls -lh /tmp/finops-agent-vendored   # one file, engine inside
/tmp/finops-agent-vendored                        # month-to-date spend, tagging gaps, waste; no download at run time

Revert or Teardown

stackql-deploy build stacks/service-footprint dev --env-file .env      # converge, if you want to run the sweep again
stackql-deploy teardown stacks/service-footprint dev --env-file .env

Versioning

stackql-mcp-go is version-locked to the stackql release it embeds; the module tag is v<stackql version> (this repo pins v0.11.669; a server bump is a normal go get github.com/stackql/stackql-mcp-go@v<new>). Module source lives in stackql/stackql packaging/mcpb/go and is published through the stackql/stackql-mcp-go mirror.

CI

.github/workflows/ci.yml generates the vendored glue, builds everything and runs the zero-credential smokes (both minimal programs, the three --check preflights, sandboxctl-vendored tools) on every push and PR. When the ANTHROPIC_API_KEY secret is configured, an agent-live job additionally asks audit-agent-sidecar one question.

References

• Module and docs: pkg.go.dev/github.com/stackql/stackql-mcp-go/embed; source in stackql/stackql packaging/mcpb/go
• StackQL MCP server: stackql.io/docs/mcp
• stackql-deploy: stackql-deploy.io, stackql/stackql-deploy-rs
• Server bundles: built by stackql/stackql packaging/mcpb, published on stackql/stackql releases
• Provider registry: registry.stackql.app
• Siblings: rust-embedded-mcp-with-stackql, dotnet-embedded-mcp-with-stackql

MIT licensed.