Elasticsearch MCP Server

This repository contains experimental features intended for research and evaluation and are not production-ready.

Connect to your Elasticsearch data directly from any MCP Client (like Claude Desktop) using the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

This server connects agents to your Elasticsearch data using the Model Context Protocol. It allows you to interact with your Elasticsearch indices through natural language conversations.

Available Tools

• list_indices: List all available Elasticsearch indices
• get_mappings: Get field mappings for a specific Elasticsearch index
• search: Perform an Elasticsearch search with the provided query DSL. Supports highlighting, query profiling, and query explanation.
• get_shards: Get shard information for all or specific indices

Prerequisites

• An Elasticsearch instance
• Elasticsearch authentication credentials (API key or username/password)
• Docker (or an OCI runtime)
• MCP Client (e.g. Claude Desktop)

Demo

mcp-server-elasticsearch.mov

Installation & Setup

Using Docker

1. Configure MCP Client

   • Open your MCP Client. See the list of MCP Clients, here we are configuring Claude Desktop.
   • Go to Settings > Developer > MCP Servers
   • Click Edit Config and add a new MCP Server with the following configuration:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "elasticsearch-mcp-server": {
         "command": "docker",
         "args": [
           "run", "--rm", "-i",
           "-e", "ES_URL",
           "-e", "ES_API_KEY",
           "docker.elastic.co/mcp/elasticsearch", "stdio"
         ],
         "env": {
           "ES_URL": "<your-elasticsearch-url>",
           "ES_API_KEY": "<your-api-key>"
         }
       }
     }
   }

2. Start a Conversation

   • Open a new conversation in your MCP Client
   • The MCP server should connect automatically
   • You can now ask questions about your Elasticsearch data

Using the Published NPM Package

1. Configure MCP Client

   • Open your MCP Client. See the list of MCP Clients, here we are configuring Claude Desktop.
   • Go to Settings > Developer > MCP Servers
   • Click Edit Config and add a new MCP Server with the following configuration:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "elasticsearch-mcp-server": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": [
           "-y",
           "@elastic/mcp-server-elasticsearch"
         ],
         "env": {
           "ES_URL": "<your-elasticsearch-url>",
           "ES_API_KEY": "<your-api-key>",
           "OTEL_LOG_LEVEL": "none"
         }
       }
     }
   }

2. Start a Conversation

   • Open a new conversation in your MCP Client
   • The MCP server should connect automatically
   • You can now ask questions about your Elasticsearch data

Configuration Options

The Elasticsearch MCP Server supports configuration options to connect to your Elasticsearch:

Note

You must provide either an API key or both username and password for authentication.

Environment Variable	Description	Required
ES_URL	Your Elasticsearch instance URL	Yes
ES_API_KEY	Elasticsearch API key for authentication	No
ES_USERNAME	Elasticsearch username for basic authentication	No
ES_PASSWORD	Elasticsearch password for basic authentication	No
ES_CA_CERT	Path to custom CA certificate for Elasticsearch SSL/TLS	No
ES_SSL_SKIP_VERIFY	Set to '1' or 'true' to skip SSL certificate verification	No
ES_PATH_PREFIX	Path prefix for Elasticsearch instance exposed at a non-root path	No
ES_VERSION	Server assumes Elasticsearch 9.x. Set to 8 target Elasticsearch 8.x	No

Developing Locally

Note

If you want to modify or extend the MCP Server, follow these local development steps.

1. Use the correct Node.js version

   nvm use

2. Install Dependencies

   npm install

3. Build the Project

   npm run build

4. Run locally in Claude Desktop App

   • Open Claude Desktop App
   • Go to Settings > Developer > MCP Servers
   • Click Edit Config and add a new MCP Server with the following configuration:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "elasticsearch-mcp-server-local": {
         "command": "node",
         "args": [
           "/path/to/your/project/dist/index.js"
         ],
         "env": {
           "ES_URL": "your-elasticsearch-url",
           "ES_API_KEY": "your-api-key",
           "OTEL_LOG_LEVEL": "none"
         }
       }
     }
   }

5. Debugging with MCP Inspector

   ES_URL=your-elasticsearch-url ES_API_KEY=your-api-key npm run inspector

   This will start the MCP Inspector, allowing you to debug and analyze requests. You should see:

   Starting MCP inspector...
   Proxy server listening on port 3000
   
   🔍 MCP Inspector is up and running at http://localhost:5173 🚀

Contributing

We welcome contributions from the community! For details on how to contribute, please see Contributing Guidelines.

Example Questions

Tip

Here are some natural language queries you can try with your MCP Client.

• "What indices do I have in my Elasticsearch cluster?"
• "Show me the field mappings for the 'products' index."
• "Find all orders over $500 from last month."
• "Which products received the most 5-star reviews?"

How It Works

1. The MCP Client analyzes your request and determines which Elasticsearch operations are needed.
2. The MCP server carries out these operations (listing indices, fetching mappings, performing searches).
3. The MCP Client processes the results and presents them in a user-friendly format.

Security Best Practices

Warning

Avoid using cluster-admin privileges. Create dedicated API keys with limited scope and apply fine-grained access control at the index level to prevent unauthorized data access.

You can create a dedicated Elasticsearch API key with minimal permissions to control access to your data:

POST /_security/api_key
{
  "name": "es-mcp-server-access",
  "role_descriptors": {
    "mcp_server_role": {
      "cluster": [
        "monitor"
      ],
      "indices": [
        {
          "names": [
            "index-1",
            "index-2",
            "index-pattern-*"
          ],
          "privileges": [
            "read",
            "view_index_metadata"
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

Troubleshooting

• Ensure your MCP configuration is correct.
• Verify that your Elasticsearch URL is accessible from your machine.
• Check that your authentication credentials (API key or username/password) have the necessary permissions.
• If using SSL/TLS with a custom CA, verify that the certificate path is correct and the file is readable.
• Look at the terminal output for error messages.

If you encounter issues, feel free to open an issue on the GitHub repository.