Elasticsearch MCP server

This Elasticsearch MCP server provides a simple way to interact with your Elasticsearch data through natural language conversations using the Model Context Protocol. You can connect any MCP client to this server to search and analyze your Elasticsearch indices.

Prerequisites

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

Installation and Setup

Using the stdio Protocol

The MCP server is provided as a Docker image that can be run with the following environment variables:

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

Run the server in stdio mode with:

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

Claude Desktop Configuration

To configure Claude Desktop to use this MCP server, add the following to your Claude Desktop configuration:

{
 "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 and SSE Protocols

The streamable-HTTP protocol is recommended (SSE is deprecated). Run the server in HTTP mode 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.

Using with Claude Desktop Free Edition

To use with Claude Desktop (free edition that only supports stdio):

1. Install mcp-proxy to bridge stdio to streamable-http:

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

When interacting with the MCP server through your client, you can use the following 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
• 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