SQLite MCP: tilde (~) in --db-path is not expanded (use the full path)

TL;DR: ~ in --db-path does not mean your home directory to the SQLite MCP server. Tilde expansion is a shell feature and the server is launched without a shell, so it looks for a literal directory named ~ and fails. Write out the full path.

Error: unable to open database file

(With --db-path set to something like ~/data/app.db.)

Fix it

1. In your MCP client config, replace the tilde with the real home directory:

{
  "args": ["mcp-server-sqlite", "--db-path", "[HOME]/..."]
}

Find your home directory with echo $HOME in a terminal.

1. Restart the MCP client.

Expected: the server opens the database and tools work.

When to use this

• --db-path contains ~ and the server cannot open the file.
• The same path works when pasted into a terminal (because your shell expands the tilde there).

When NOT to use this

• The path has no tilde and still fails. Then it is a permissions or missing-directory problem.
• The error is no such table. The file opened; it is just the wrong or an empty one.

Compatibility

• @modelcontextprotocol/server-sqlite.
• All MCP clients, since none of them run a shell to expand the argument.

Why it happens

When you type ~/data/app.db in a terminal, your shell rewrites it to [HOME]/... before the program ever sees it. MCP clients spawn servers directly via process APIs, with no shell in between, so the server receives the literal two-character string ~/... and treats it as a relative path. There is no ~ directory, so the open fails.

Edge cases

• Environment variables like $HOME in args are not expanded either, for the same reason. Some clients support ${HOME} in the env block, but not in args.
• On Windows, %USERPROFILE% is not expanded in args either. Use the full C:[HOME]/... path.
• If you generate configs with a script, expand the path in the script before writing the JSON.