About kibana-mcp
A read-only MCP server for querying Kibana and Elasticsearch from Claude and other MCP-compatible agents. It uses Elasticsearch REST APIs directly when configured, with a Kibana Console proxy fallback, and returns structured JSON and Markdown.
Key features
- 01Search logs with time and sort filters
- 02Aggregate logs by fields and metrics
- 03Discover indices and index details
- 04Browse and retrieve dashboards
- 05Support API key, Basic, and anonymous auth
- 06Return JSON and Markdown results
Use cases
- 01Investigate errors during an incident
- 02Compare log counts or metrics by service
- 03Find an index containing relevant events
- 04Review dashboard panels
MCP support
Exposes read-only tools to MCP clients for index discovery, log searches, aggregations, and dashboard browsing. Elasticsearch requests use a configured direct endpoint or fall back to the Kibana Console proxy.
Configuration
Local server config is the same for every client. Copy it into your client’s MCP config file.
uvx kibana-mcpKIBANA_URLKibana base URL (e.g. https://kibana.example.com)ELASTICSEARCH_URLDirect Elasticsearch URL. If unset, ES requests route through the Kibana Console proxy.KIBANA_API_KEYSecretElasticsearch API key (ApiKey base64(id:api_key) format). Takes priority over Basic auth.KIBANA_USERNAMEHTTP Basic auth username. Used only when KIBANA_API_KEY is not set.KIBANA_PASSWORDSecretHTTP Basic auth password.KIBANA_SSL_VERIFYVerify SSL certificates (true/false). Set to 'false' for self-signed certs.Local servers need a runtime on your machine (e.g. Node.js 18+). Config file locations differ by client; see your client’s docs.
Tools
Local servers expose tools only once running on your machine, and the maintainer has not provided a tool list.
Details
From the project READMEkibana-mcp
MCP server for Kibana / Elasticsearch — log search, aggregations, index discovery, and dashboard browsing via Claude and any MCP-compatible agent.
Why another Kibana MCP?
Existing integrations require a running Kibana instance with browser-level credentials and often wrap the Kibana UI rather than the stable REST APIs. This server:
- Hits Elasticsearch REST API directly for log queries (faster, stable across Kibana UI changes)
- Falls back to the Kibana Console proxy when no direct ES URL is configured (zero extra firewall rules)
- Supports ApiKey auth (best for agents) as well as Basic auth and anonymous access
- Returns both structured JSON (
outputSchema) and markdown text so it works with any MCP client - Is read-only — all tools carry
readOnlyHint: true, no data is modified
Tools
| Tool | API | Description |
|---|---|---|
kibana_list_indices | GET ES/_cat/indices | Discover available indices with health, docs, size |
kibana_search_logs | POST ES/{index}/_search | Full-text log search with time range, sort, size |
kibana_aggregate_logs | POST ES/{index}/_search | Terms grouping with count/avg/sum/min/max metric |
kibana_list_dashboards | GET Kibana/api/saved_objects/_find | List saved dashboards with search + pagination |
kibana_get_dashboard | GET Kibana/api/saved_objects/dashboard/{id} | Fetch one dashboard with panel breakdown |
Installation
pip install kibana-mcp
Or run directly with uvx:
uvx kibana-mcp
Configuration
Environment Variables
| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
KIBANA_URL | Yes | Kibana base URL (e.g. https://kibana.example.com) |
ELASTICSEARCH_URL | No | Direct ES endpoint. If unset, ES requests go through Kibana Console proxy |
KIBANA_API_KEY | No | ES API key (ApiKey base64(id:api_key) format). Recommended for agents |
KIBANA_USERNAME | No | HTTP Basic auth username (used if API key not set) |
KIBANA_PASSWORD | No | HTTP Basic auth password |
KIBANA_SSL_VERIFY | No | true (default) or false for self-signed certificates |
Auth priority: ApiKey > Basic > anonymous.
Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your values.
MCP Client Configuration (Claude Desktop / claude.app)
{
"mcpServers": {
"kibana": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["kibana-mcp"],
"env": {
"KIBANA_URL": "https://kibana.example.com",
"KIBANA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}
Or with direct ES access for better performance:
{
"mcpServers": {
"kibana": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["kibana-mcp"],
"env": {
"KIBANA_URL": "https://kibana.example.com",
"ELASTICSEARCH_URL": "https://es.example.com:9200",
"KIBANA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}
Docker
docker run --rm -i \
-e KIBANA_URL=https://kibana.example.com \
-e KIBANA_API_KEY=your-key \
ghcr.io/mshegolev/kibana-mcp
Usage Examples
Log Search
Find the last 50 ERROR logs from the API service in the last hour
→ kibana_search_logs(index="logs-*", query="level:ERROR AND service:api", size=50, time_from="2026-04-18T09:00:00Z")
Show 500 HTTP errors sorted oldest first for incident replay
→ kibana_search_logs(index="nginx-*", query="status:500", sort_order="asc", size=100)
Aggregations
How many logs per log level in the last hour?
→ kibana_aggregate_logs(index="logs-*", group_by="level", time_from="2026-04-18T09:00:00Z")
What is the average response time per service?
→ kibana_aggregate_logs(index="logs-*", group_by="service.keyword", metric="avg", metric_field="response_time_ms")
Index Discovery
What log indices are available?
→ kibana_list_indices()
Show me all filebeat indices
→ kibana_list_indices(pattern="filebeat-*")
Dashboards
Find the infrastructure dashboard
→ kibana_list_dashboards(search="infrastructure")
What panels does dashboard X have?
→ kibana_get_dashboard(dashboard_id="<id from list_dashboards>")
Performance Characteristics
- Log search (
kibana_search_logs): typically 50-500ms with direct ES URL; add 100-200ms when routing through Kibana Console proxy - Aggregations (
kibana_aggregate_logs):size:0queries — no hits transferred, usually 10-100ms - Index listing: single
_cat/indicescall, O(index_count) response, typically <100ms - Dashboard APIs: Kibana Saved Objects API, typically 50-200ms; latency is Kibana-side, not network
- Set
ELASTICSEARCH_URLdirectly if your agent does frequent log searches — eliminates the proxy overhead
Development
git clone https://github.com/mshegolev/kibana-mcp
cd kibana-mcp
pip install -e '.[dev]'
pytest tests/ -v
ruff check src tests
ruff format src tests
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
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