ClickHouse Analytics with Bonnard

Bonnard gives you a ClickHouse semantic layer defined in YAML, version-controlled, and queryable from AI agents, React components, and REST APIs. If your team stores event data, logs, or time-series metrics in ClickHouse, Bonnard connects directly and exposes governed data through MCP, React SDK, REST API, and markdown dashboards.

How does Bonnard connect to ClickHouse?

Add ClickHouse as a datasource in your Bonnard project. Define the connection in your datasources.yml:

# datasources.yml
datasources:
  - name: clickhouse_db
    type: clickhouse
    host: clickhouse.example.com
    port: 8443
    database: analytics
    username: bonnard_readonly
    password: ${CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORD}
    ssl: true

Then run:

bon datasource add clickhouse_db
bon deploy

Bonnard connects to your ClickHouse instance over HTTP, introspects your database, and deploys your semantic layer. Works with self-hosted ClickHouse and ClickHouse Cloud. Your data is queryable through every Bonnard surface within minutes.

What do you get?

Once connected, your ClickHouse data is available through four surfaces:

MCP server. Run bon mcp and your AI agents (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor) query governed ClickHouse metrics with row-level security. Generate publishable keys per tenant for customer-facing agentic analytics.

React SDK. Drop BarChart, LineChart, and BigValue components into your product. Every chart queries your ClickHouse database through the semantic layer with multi-tenant access controls applied automatically.

REST API. Query metrics programmatically from any language or platform. Type-safe queries with the TypeScript SDK or raw HTTP from anywhere.

Markdown dashboards. Author dashboards in markdown, deploy with bon deploy, and share governed views with your team or customers.

How does Bonnard compare to querying ClickHouse directly?

Capability	ClickHouse direct	Bonnard + ClickHouse
Metric definitions	SQL views, materialized views	YAML semantic layer (version-controlled)
AI agent access	None	MCP server with publishable keys
Embedded analytics	Build from scratch	React SDK with multi-tenant auth
Dashboards	Grafana, Metabase (external)	Markdown dashboards, deployed via CLI
Multi-tenancy	Row policies (manual)	Publishable keys + automatic row filters
Pre-aggregation	Materialized views, projections	Automatic pre-aggregation cache
Access control	ClickHouse users + quotas	YAML-defined RBAC + audit logging
Deployment	SQL migration scripts	bon deploy (no restart, no SSH)

FAQ

Does Bonnard support ClickHouse?

Yes. ClickHouse is a first-class Bonnard datasource. Both self-hosted ClickHouse and ClickHouse Cloud are supported. Configure your connection in YAML, run bon datasource add, and deploy.

Is ClickHouse good for real-time analytics with Bonnard?

ClickHouse is optimized for sub-second queries on billions of rows. Combined with the semantic layer, you get governed, real-time metrics exposed to AI agents, dashboards, and embedded charts. The pre-aggregation cache further accelerates repeated queries.

Can I use ClickHouse materialized views with Bonnard?

Yes. Bonnard queries your ClickHouse database as-is, including materialized views. You can also layer the pre-aggregation cache on top for additional caching. Define your cubes over ClickHouse tables or materialized views and Bonnard handles the rest.

Does Bonnard support ClickHouse Cloud?

Yes. Use your ClickHouse Cloud endpoint as the host in datasources.yml, set ssl: true, and provide your credentials. Bonnard connects over HTTPS. All features (MCP, React SDK, dashboards, RBAC) work with ClickHouse Cloud the same way they work with self-hosted ClickHouse.