Elasticsearch MCP server

The Elasticsearch MCP Server allows you to connect to your Elasticsearch data directly from any MCP Client (like Claude Desktop) using the Model Context Protocol. This lets you interact with Elasticsearch indices through natural language conversations instead of writing complex queries.

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
• get_shards: Get shard information for all or specific indices

Prerequisites

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

Installation & Setup

Using the Published NPM Package

1. Configure MCP Client

   • Open your MCP Client (such as 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"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

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 several configuration options:

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

Usage Examples

Example Questions

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

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"
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

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.

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

How to add this MCP server to 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 > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

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

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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 explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.