kibana-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.