looker vs BigQuery Data Platform
looker is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by gemini-cli-extensions. Marketplaces we read that list it: 3 (Claude Code: claude-plugins-official, Claude Code: claude-plugins-community, Community GitHub marketplaces). BigQuery Data Platform is an MCP server published by deBilla. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Official MCP Registry). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-14. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |  looker |  BigQuery Data Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code: claude-plugins-official | Listed Version: 0.3.11 Forks (GitHub): 5 Stars (GitHub): 57 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Claude Code: claude-plugins-community | Listed Version: 0.3.10 Forks (GitHub): 5 Stars (GitHub): 57 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Official MCP Registry | Not listed | Listed Version: 0.4.0 Downloads/month (PyPI): 861 Downloads/week (PyPI): 53 Forks (GitHub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 0 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | looker | BigQuery Data Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it (differs) | 3 (better) | 1 (worse) |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 57 (better) | 0 (worse) |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 5 (better) | 0 (worse) |
| Last release | Not published | Not published |
| Where it runs (differs) | Installs as a plugin bundle | On your machine (data-platform-mcp) |
| Transport (differs) | Not stated | stdio |
| Tools it declares | Not published | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | 7, secrets among them: 1 | 11, secrets among them: 0 |
| Parts of the bundle (differs) | 2 | Not a bundle |
| Licence (differs) | Apache-2.0 | Not stated |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/gemini-cli-extensions/looker | github.com/debilla/bigquery-mcp |
| Changes in the last 7 days (differs) | 2 | 0 |
| First seen | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-11 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
looker
Connect to Looker and interact with your data using LookML.
BigQuery Data Platform
Read-only BigQuery tools for plain-language data questions, with a cost gate on every query
How to run each
looker As a Claude Code plugin
/plugin install looker@claude-plugins-officialBigQuery Data Platform As a local MCP server: PyPI package
claude mcp add --transport stdio data-platform-mcp -- uvx data-platform-mcpCommands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
Neither one's marketplaces publish a list of tools, so there is nothing to compare.
Settings each asks for
Only looker asks for
LOOKER_BASE_URLLOOKER_CLIENT_IDLOOKER_CLIENT_SECRET (secret)LOOKER_SHOW_HIDDEN_EXPLORESLOOKER_SHOW_HIDDEN_FIELDSLOOKER_SHOW_HIDDEN_MODELSLOOKER_VERIFY_SSL
Only BigQuery Data Platform asks for
BQ_CODE_ASSET_LOCATIONBQ_DATASET_ALLOWLISTBQ_IMPERSONATE_SERVICE_ACCOUNTBQ_LOCATIONBQ_MAX_BYTES_BILLEDBQ_MCP_AUDIT_LOGBQ_MCP_CONFIGBQ_MCP_DEFAULT_ENVIRONMENTBQ_MCP_ENVIRONMENTSBQ_PROJECTBQ_WARN_BYTES
Settings as each marketplace publishes them. Asking for fewer is not better in itself.
What it can do: looker · What it can do: BigQuery Data Platform · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from the public marketplace file https://github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-official/blob/HEAD/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json. Data comes from the public marketplace file https://github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-community/blob/HEAD/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json. Data comes from public marketplace files in GitHub repositories of their authors. Data comes from the Official MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io), CC0 1.0. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.