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Connection Pool

The Connection Pool is a key component of ShotGrid MCP Server that efficiently manages connections to the ShotGrid API. It provides connection reuse, error handling, and automatic retries to ensure reliable communication with ShotGrid.

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Why Use a Connection Pool?

ShotGrid API connections are relatively expensive to establish and maintain. The Connection Pool provides several benefits:
  1. Performance: Reuses existing connections instead of creating new ones for each request.
  2. Reliability: Handles connection errors and automatically retries failed operations.
  3. Resource Management: Limits the number of concurrent connections to prevent overwhelming the ShotGrid server.
  4. Monitoring: Tracks connection usage and performance metrics.

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How It Works

The Connection Pool maintains a pool of ShotGrid API connections that can be borrowed, used, and returned:

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Using the Connection Pool

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Automatic Usage

When you use the server.connection property or create tools with the @server.tool() decorator, the Connection Pool is used automatically: 
@server.tool()
def find_projects(status: str = None):
    """Find projects in ShotGrid."""
    filters = []
    if status:
        filters.append(["sg_status", "is", status])
    
    # This automatically uses a connection from the pool
    return server.connection.find(
        "Project",
        filters,
        ["id", "name", "code", "sg_status"]
    )

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Manual Usage

For more control, you can manually acquire and release connections: 
@server.tool()
async def complex_operation():
    """Perform a complex operation requiring multiple API calls."""
    results = []
    
    # Manually acquire a connection from the pool
    async with server.connection_pool.connection() as sg:
        # Use the connection for multiple operations
        projects = sg.find("Project", [], ["id", "name"])
        for project in projects:
            shots = sg.find(
                "Shot",
                [["project", "is", {"type": "Project", "id": project["id"]}]],
                ["code"]
            )
            results.append({
                "project": project["name"],
                "shot_count": len(shots)
            })
    
    # Connection is automatically returned to the pool
    return results
The async with statement ensures the connection is properly returned to the pool, even if an exception occurs.

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Configuration

You can configure the Connection Pool when creating the ShotGrid MCP Server: 
from shotgrid_mcp_server import ShotGridMCPServer

server = ShotGridMCPServer(
    name="ShotGrid Assistant",
    shotgrid_url="https://your-site.shotgunstudio.com",
    script_name="your_script_name",
    api_key="your_api_key",
    
    # Connection Pool settings
    max_connections=10,           # Maximum number of connections in the pool
    connection_timeout=30,        # Timeout for ShotGrid API calls (seconds)
    max_retries=3,                # Maximum number of retries for failed operations
    retry_delay=1.0,              # Delay between retries (seconds)
    health_check_interval=60      # Interval for connection health checks (seconds)
)

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Configuration Options

ParameterTypeDefaultDescription
max_connectionsint10Maximum number of connections in the pool
connection_timeoutint30Timeout for ShotGrid API calls (seconds)
max_retriesint3Maximum number of retries for failed operations
retry_delayfloat1.0Delay between retries (seconds)
health_check_intervalint60Interval for connection health checks (seconds)

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Advanced Usage

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Connection Context

The Connection Pool provides a context manager for acquiring and releasing connections: 
async def process_entity(entity_type, entity_id):
    async with server.connection_pool.connection() as sg:
        # Use the connection
        entity = sg.find_one(entity_type, [["id", "is", entity_id]])
        # Process the entity...
        return entity

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Error Handling

The Connection Pool automatically handles many common ShotGrid API errors:
  1. Connection Errors: If a connection fails, the pool will retry with a different connection.
  2. Timeout Errors: If a request times out, the pool will retry the operation.
  3. Authentication Errors: If authentication fails, the pool will attempt to re-authenticate.
For custom error handling, you can catch specific exceptions: 
from shotgun_api3.shotgun import ShotgunError

@server.tool()
def update_entity(entity_type, entity_id, data):
    """Update an entity with error handling."""
    try:
        return server.connection.update(entity_type, entity_id, data)
    except ShotgunError as e:
        if "Permission denied" in str(e):
            raise ValueError(f"You don't have permission to update this {entity_type}")
        elif "does not exist" in str(e):
            raise ValueError(f"{entity_type} with ID {entity_id} does not exist")
        else:
            # Re-raise other ShotGrid errors
            raise

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Monitoring

The Connection Pool provides methods to monitor its status: 
@server.tool()
def get_connection_stats():
    """Get statistics about the connection pool."""
    stats = server.connection_pool.stats()
    return {
        "total_connections": stats["total"],
        "active_connections": stats["active"],
        "idle_connections": stats["idle"],
        "requests_served": stats["requests"],
        "errors_encountered": stats["errors"]
    }

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Best Practices

  1. Use Async Context Managers: When manually acquiring connections, always use the async context manager (async with) to ensure proper release.
  2. Batch Operations: Use ShotGrid’s batch API for multiple operations to reduce the number of API calls.
  3. Limit Connection Time: Don’t hold onto connections for long periods. Get what you need and release the connection.
  4. Handle Errors Gracefully: Catch and handle specific ShotGrid errors to provide better feedback to users.
  5. Monitor Pool Health: In production, monitor the connection pool statistics to ensure it’s functioning properly.

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Next Steps

Now that you understand the Connection Pool, you can:
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