Elasticsearch MCP server

This MCP server enables you to connect to Elasticsearch data using the Model Context Protocol, allowing natural language interactions with your Elasticsearch indices.

Prerequisites

• An Elasticsearch instance (versions 8.x and 9.x supported)
• Elasticsearch authentication credentials (API key or username/password)
• An MCP Client such as Claude Desktop or Goose

Installation & Setup

Using the stdio Protocol

The MCP server requires the following environment variables:

• ES_URL: Your Elasticsearch cluster URL
• Authentication (choose one method):
  • API key: ES_API_KEY
  • Basic auth: ES_USERNAME and ES_PASSWORD
• Optional: ES_SSL_SKIP_VERIFY=true to skip SSL/TLS certificate verification

Start the server in stdio mode with:

docker run -i --rm -e ES_URL -e ES_API_KEY docker.elastic.co/mcp/elasticsearch stdio

Configuring Claude Desktop with stdio

Add this configuration to Claude Desktop:

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

Using the streamable-HTTP Protocol

Set the same environment variables as with stdio, then start the server with:

docker run --rm -e ES_URL -e ES_API_KEY -p 8080:8080 docker.elastic.co/mcp/elasticsearch http

The streamable-HTTP endpoint will be available at http:<host>:8080/mcp, with a health check at http:<host>:8080/ping.

Configuring Claude Desktop with streamable-HTTP

Since Claude Desktop free edition only supports stdio, you'll need to bridge to streamable-HTTP:

1. Install the mcp-proxy tool:

   uv tool install mcp-proxy
   

2. Add this configuration to Claude Desktop:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "elasticsearch-mcp-server": {
         "command": "/<home-directory>/.local/bin/mcp-proxy",
         "args": [
           "--transport=streamablehttp",
           "--header", "Authorization", "ApiKey <elasticsearch-API-key>",
           "http://<mcp-server-host>:<mcp-server-port>/mcp"
         ]
       }
     }
   }
   

Available Tools

The server provides these tools for interacting with your Elasticsearch data:

• 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
• esql: Perform an ES|QL query
• get_shards: Get shard information for all or specific indices

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "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"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "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"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "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"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect