Agents can now do the one thing it always asked you for

MongoDB has introduced a new tool that allows AI coding agents and developers to quickly set up and connect to a database for their projects. This can be done using an Atlas Ephemeral cluster, a temporary Free cluster (M0) that does not require an Atlas account or API keys.

To create an Ephemeral cluster, send a POST request to the endpoint https://cloud.mongodb.com/api/atlas/v2/unauth/ephemeralClusters:create. This request requires an Accept header and returns a connection string, claimUrl, and clusterId. The connection string can be used to connect to the cluster, while the claimUrl is used to claim the cluster and make it a standard Free cluster with no expiration date. The clusterId is used to retrieve the cluster's status and other details.

An Ephemeral cluster has a limited lifespan of 7 days after creation unless it is claimed. During this time, it can be scaled, users can be added, IP access can be restricted, and other administrative operations can be performed. However, once the cluster is claimed, it becomes a standard Free cluster with no expiration date and all of its data is retained.

To connect to an Ephemeral cluster, provide the connection string to the MongoDB driver for your programming language when initializing the client object that connects to the cluster. You can also use the command line to connect and run commands interactively. Note that the Ephemeral cluster allows connections from any IP address (0.0.0.0/0) and has a fixed set of specifications, including a maximum storage of 512 MB, a maximum of 100 total read and write operations per second, and a maximum of 500 concurrent connections.