Use Tableau Studio Headless

Use Your Agent to Author with Tableau MCP

Internal Beta Only: Using an external AI tool (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex . . .) to drive Tableau Studio is only available if you have an internal build of Tableau Studio.

In Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, or any MCP-capable client you choose, download and build the tableau-mcp repo locally to drive Tableau Studio authoring using natural language.

Get started with Tableau MCP

Tip: You may be able to copy/paste this Get Started section into your AI IDE and have it complete setup and testing for you.

Install Node.js 22.7.5 or later (npx will install the needed server).
Install Tableau Studio.

Clone and build the MCP locally.

Clone the tableau-mcp repo:

 git clone https://github.com/tableau/tableau-mcp
 cd tableau-mcp
 git checkout feature/desktop

Install dependencies and build the Desktop profile:

 npm ci
 npm run build

Configure your MCP client to point at the built server:

 {
 "mcpServers": {
     "tableau-desktop": {
         "type": "stdio",
         "command": "node",
         "args": ["<path to your tableau-mcp clone>/tableau-mcp/build/index.desktop.js"],
         "env": { "TRANSPORT": "stdio", "TABLEAU_EXTERNAL_API": "true" }
     }
 }
 }

Open Tableau Studio.
Try a query prompt like: “What workbooks are available in Tableau Studio?”
Try an action prompt like “Change the font color of all dashboard titles in the workbook to green.”

Directly call the Tableau External Client API

For automation scenarios you may choose to create scripts or other programmatic content that drives Tableau Studio through the Tableau External Client API (opens in new window) . For instance, you may want to apply a style guide to a workbook, check a batch of workbooks for accessibility features, or search and replace a string in a set of Tableau projects.

Get Started with direct calls to the Tableau External Client API

Install Tableau Studio.
Open Tableau Studio.
Find your Tableau External Client API discovery file.

This file is recreated with fresh values on each launch of Tableau Studio and is only available once the app has fully started. The basename of the file is the OS process ID Tableau is running in.

macOS

~/Library/Application Support/Tableau/Tableau/ExternalApi/<pid>.json

Windows

%LOCALAPPDATA%/Tableau/Tableau/ExternalApi/<pid>.json

The two important values it contains are:
- baseUrl - typically http://127.0.0.1:<xxxxx>
- token - looks like: af1129c44d5dcd8bd9206a8641133c91eed66c76b5f562633a37fd186e5ccac1
A full typical discovery file looks like:
```
 {
 "schemaVersion": 1,
 "instanceId": "td_a8f1bf61-9194-49e8-8205-6ae7e831d5c2",
 "pid": 28814,
 "baseUrl": "http://127.0.0.1:62197",
 "tokenType": "Bearer",
 "token": "af1129c44d5dcd8bd9206a8641133c91eed66c76b5f562633a37fd186e5ccac1",
 "applicationVersion": "0.0.0",
 "apiVersion": "0.2.6",
 "startedAt": "2026-08-14T16:14:52Z"
 }
```
A model call looks like:
```
 curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer <token value>" \
 <baseURL>/v0/workbook
```
Check the presence of the client (no authorization is needed for this one call). Run:
```
 curl -sS  http://127.0.0.1:62197/v0/health
```
This should return:
```
 {"status":"OK"} (HTTP 200)
```

Try a call to list all available workbooks. Run:

 curl -sS -H "Authorization: Bearer af1129c44d5dcd8bd9206a8641133c91eed66c76b5f562633a37fd186e5ccac1" \
 http://127.0.0.1:62197/v0/workbook

This should return something like:

 {
   "title": "Book1",
   "location": null,
   "unsavedChanges": false,
   "worksheets": [
     {
       "id": "{9BBEEE50-4AF9-46C2-BB36-1DAC6793FE4B}",
       "name": "Sheet 1",
       "hidden": false,
       "isActiveSheet": true,
       "index": 0,
       "isAutoUpdatesPaused": false,
       "datasources": []
     }
   ],
   "dashboards": [],
   "storyboards": []
 }

API call helper script

call-studio-api.py (download) is an example script for Windows and macOS that does the discovery and authentication work on your behalf each time you call. Rather than reading the discovery file yourself and pasting a baseUrl and token into every cURL call, you supply a simplified URI and a JSON payload:

python call-studio-api.py <METHOD> <path> [json-body] [--workbook <name or path>]

There is nothing to configure first. Each run finds the running copies of Tableau Studio, confirms the Tableau External Client API is responding, and supplies the current baseUrl and token.

For long-running operations that return HTTP 202 instead of a result, the script waits and delivers the full response when it arrives, for up to 30 seconds.

The script writes the response body to stdout and status lines, prompts, and errors to stderr, so python call-studio-api.py GET v0/health | jq .status works. It writes no files, sets no environment variables, and saves no token between runs. Because each run rediscovers the current session, it keeps working after Tableau Studio restarts with a new process ID and a new token.

Prerequisite

The script needs Python 3.9 or later.

Arguments

Argument	Required	Description
`METHOD`	Yes	HTTP method: `GET`, `POST`, `PUT`, `PATCH`, or `DELETE`.
`path`	Yes	Simplified API path. The leading slash is optional, so `v0/workbook` and `/v0/workbook` are equivalent.
`json-body`	No	JSON string for write methods. Checked for valid JSON before anything is sent.
`--workbook`	No	Drive the window holding this workbook. Accepts a file name (`lab.twb`), a path (`~/books/lab.twb`, resolved from your current directory), or the title shown in Tableau Studio (`Book1`). A workbook that has never been saved has no file name or path, so its title is the only way to name it.

Choose which window to drive

If more than one instance of Tableau Studio is open, the script will prompt:

Multiple Tableau Studio instances are open. Choose one:
  1) lab.twb (/Users/me/books/lab.twb)
  2) sales.twb (/Users/me/books/2026/sales.twb)
  3) Book1 (unsaved)
Enter 1-3:

--workbook skips that prompt. If the value matches nothing that is open, the script will prompt you to select an open instance.

Examples

Focus Sheet 1 in the current workbook:

python call-studio-api.py POST v0/workbook:goToSheet '{"id":"{9BBEEE50-4AF9-46C2-BB36-1DAC6793FE4B}"}'

Read the structure of a specific open workbook:

python call-studio-api.py GET v0/workbook --workbook ~/books/lab.twb

List the workbooks on the site, waiting for the operation to finish:

python call-studio-api.py GET v0/site/workbooks

Exit codes

Useful when calling the script from other automation:

Code	Meaning
`0`	The instance answered with a 2xx, and any operation the script waited on succeeded.
`1`	Tableau Studio is not running or stopped responding, no workbook matched your selector, the prompt was cancelled, or an operation outlived its timeout.
`2`	The command itself was malformed, such as a missing argument or a body that is not valid JSON.
`3`	The instance returned an error status, or the operation it started failed.

Check the Tableau External Client API (opens in new window) reference for the Tableau authoring operations you can call.