MCP, REST, and public previews
Rowset has three surfaces that look similar from a distance but solve different jobs:
- MCP is the preferred path for trusted AI agents that can discover tools.
- REST is the portable HTTP path for scripts, services, and agent runtimes without MCP support.
- Public previews are read-only browser pages for human review.
The important boundary is authentication. MCP and REST are private, programmatic paths backed by API keys. Public previews are sharing paths, not agent authentication.
Use MCP for agent work
Use MCP when the agent runtime can connect to Rowset's hosted MCP endpoint and send a bearer token. The agent can discover tools, inspect schemas, verify the connected account, load Rowset capabilities, and operate on datasets without scraping the browser.
This is the best fit for workflows like personal CRMs, task boards, feedback triage, content queues, catalogs, and QA trackers.
Use REST for portable integrations
Use REST when the caller is a backend service, script, scheduled job, or agent runtime that cannot use MCP. REST is also useful when you need explicit HTTP requests, generated API docs, or conventional client code.
The REST API uses the same ownership boundary: send
Authorization: Bearer <key>, then operate only inside the authenticated
Rowset account.
Use public previews for humans
Use a public preview when a teammate, client, or reviewer needs to inspect a dataset in a browser without an API client. Previews are read-only. Add a password when the link should not be casually forwarded, and disable the preview when the sharing window is over.
Do not use public previews as the path for agents to read or update data. Use MCP or REST for that.
Common route
- Connect a trusted agent with MCP.
- Let the agent create or update a private dataset.
- Use REST only when a script or service needs the same data.
- Enable a public preview only when a human needs a read-only view.
- Export a snapshot when another tool expects a file.