Consumption methods

Consuming the lake is how developers, agents, and workflows read and use data from your context lake after it is ingested.

Use this section to query the catalog, connect AI tools through the Port MCP server, govern who can see what, and trigger automations from external tools.

Query the catalog

API access & search is Port's search and query syntax for filtering and retrieving catalog entities. Use it to power catalog pages, dashboards, scorecard rules, workflow conditions, and direct API calls.

Consume via the Port MCP server

The Port MCP server exposes the catalog to any MCP client - your IDE, an AI agent, or a custom tool - using the same tools that power Port AI agents to answer questions and take action on live catalog data.

Consume via the Port CLI

The Port CLI is a command-line client for the Port API. Coding agents run it from the shell, print raw JSON, and pipe results through jq or a script. Platform engineers use it to export, compare, and migrate organizations.

Govern data access

Governable data access is what sets Port's RBAC apart from a static permissions list: rules are evaluated at runtime against live catalog data.

You can define a policy like "only the payments team can see mission-critical services in the finance domain", and Port enforces it dynamically as ownership, criticality, and domain properties change - no manual permission updates required.

Trigger from external tools

The Port n8n node lets automation platforms outside Port, such as n8n, query the context lake and drive workflows without needing direct access to your toolchain.