Netdata MCP

All Netdata Agents and Parents are Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, enabling AI assistants to interact with your infrastructure monitoring data.

Every Netdata Agent and Parent includes an MCP server that:

• Implements the protocol as WebSocket for transport
• Provides read-only access to metrics, logs, alerts, and live system information
• Requires no additional installation - it's part of Netdata

Visibility Scope

Netdata provides comprehensive access to all available observability data through MCP, including complete metadata:

• Node Discovery - Hardware specifications, operating system details, version information, streaming topology, and associated metadata
• Metrics Discovery - Full-text search capabilities across contexts, instances, dimensions, and labels
• Function Discovery - Access to system functions including processes, network-connections, streaming, systemd-journal, windows-events, etc.
• Alert Discovery - Real-time visibility into active and raised alerts
• Metrics Queries - Complex aggregations and groupings with ML-powered anomaly detection
• Metrics Scoring - Root cause analysis leveraging anomaly detection and metric correlations
• Alert History - Complete alert transition logs and state changes
• Function Execution - Execute Netdata functions on any connected node (requires Netdata Parent)
• Log Exploration - Access logs from any connected node (requires Netdata Parent)

For sensitive features currently protected by Netdata Cloud SSO, a temporary MCP API key is generated on each Netdata instance. When included in the MCP connection string, this key unlocks access to sensitive data and protected functions (like systemd-journal, windows-events and processes). This temporary API key mechanism will eventually be replaced with a new authentication system integrated with Netdata Cloud.

AI assistants have different visibility depending on where they connect:

• Netdata Cloud: (coming soon) Full visibility across all nodes in your infrastructure
• Netdata Parent Node: Visibility across all child nodes connected to that parent
• Netdata Child/Standalone Node: Visibility only into that specific node

Finding the nd-mcp Bridge

AI clients like Claude Desktop run locally on your computer and use stdio communication. Since your Netdata runs remotely on a server, you need a bridge to convert stdio to WebSocket communication.

The nd-mcp bridge needs to be available on your desktop or laptop where your AI client runs. Since most users run Netdata on remote servers rather than their local machines, you have two options:

1. If you have Netdata installed locally - Use the existing nd-mcp
2. If Netdata is only on remote servers - Build nd-mcp on your desktop/laptop

Option 1: Using Existing nd-mcp

If you have Netdata installed on your desktop/laptop, find the existing bridge:

Linux

# Try these locations in order:
which nd-mcp
ls -la /usr/sbin/nd-mcp
ls -la /usr/bin/nd-mcp
ls -la /opt/netdata/usr/bin/nd-mcp
ls -la /usr/local/bin/nd-mcp
ls -la /usr/local/netdata/usr/bin/nd-mcp

# Or search for it:
find / -name "nd-mcp" 2>/dev/null

Common locations:

• Native packages (apt, yum, etc.): /usr/sbin/nd-mcp or /usr/bin/nd-mcp
• Static installations: /opt/netdata/usr/bin/nd-mcp
• Built from source: /usr/local/netdata/usr/bin/nd-mcp

macOS

# Try these locations:
which nd-mcp
ls -la /usr/local/bin/nd-mcp
ls -la /usr/local/netdata/usr/bin/nd-mcp
ls -la /opt/homebrew/bin/nd-mcp

# Or search for it:
find / -name "nd-mcp" 2>/dev/null

Windows

# Check common locations:
dir "C:\Program Files\Netdata\usr\bin\nd-mcp.exe"
dir "C:\Netdata\usr\bin\nd-mcp.exe"
# Or search for it:
where nd-mcp.exe

Option 2: Building nd-mcp for Your Desktop

If you don't have Netdata installed loca you can build just the nd-mcp bridge. Netdata provides three implementations - choose the one that best fits your environment:

1. Go bridge (recommended) - Go bridge source code

   • Produces a single binary with no dependencies
   • Creates executable named nd-mcp (nd-mcp.exe on windows)
   • Includes both build.sh and build.bat (for Windows)

2. Node.js bridge - Node.js bridge source code

   • Good if you already have Node.js installed
   • Creates script named nd-mcp.js
   • Includes build.sh

3. Python bridge - Python bridge source code

   • Good if you already have Python installed
   • Creates script named nd-mcp.py
   • Includes build.sh

To build:

# Clone the Netdata repository
git clone https://github.com/netdata/netdata.git
cd netdata

# Choose your preferred implementation
cd src/web/mcp/bridges/stdio-golang/  # or stdio-nodejs/ or stdio-python/

# Build the bridge
./build.sh  # On Windows with the Go version, use build.bat

# The executable will be created with different names:
# - Go: nd-mcp
# - Node.js: nd-mcp.js
# - Python: nd-mcp.py

# Test the bridge with your Netdata instance (replace localhost with your Netdata IP)
./nd-mcp ws://localhost:19999/mcp      # Go bridge
./nd-mcp.js ws://localhost:19999/mcp   # Node.js bridge  
./nd-mcp.py ws://localhost:19999/mcp   # Python bridge

# You should see:
# nd-mcp: Connecting to ws://localhost:19999/mcp...
# nd-mcp: Connected
# Press Ctrl+C to stop the test

# Get the absolute path for your AI client configuration
pwd  # Shows current directory
# Example output: /home/user/netdata/src/web/mcp/bridges/stdio-golang
# Your nd-mcp path would be: /home/user/netdata/src/web/mcp/bridges/stdio-golang/nd-mcp

Important: When configuring your AI client, use the full absolute path to the executable:

• Go bridge: /path/to/bridges/stdio-golang/nd-mcp
• Node.js bridge: /path/to/bridges/stdio-nodejs/nd-mcp.js
• Python bridge: /path/to/bridges/stdio-python/nd-mcp.py

Verify the Bridge Works

Once you have nd-mcp (either from existing installation or built), test it:

# Test connection to your Netdata instance (replace YOUR_NETDATA_IP with actual IP)
/path/to/nd-mcp ws://YOUR_NETDATA_IP:19999/mcp

# You should see:
# nd-mcp: Connecting to ws://YOUR_NETDATA_IP:19999/mcp...
# nd-mcp: Connected
# Press Ctrl+C to stop the test

Finding Your API Key

To access sensitive functions like logs and live system information, you need an API key. Netdata automatically generates an API key on startup. The key is stored in a file on the Netdata server you want to connect to.

You need the API key of the Netdata you will connect to (usually a Netdata Parent).

Note: This temporary API key mechanism will eventually be replaced by integration with Netdata Cloud.

Find the API Key File

# Try the default location first:
sudo cat /var/lib/netdata/mcp_dev_preview_api_key

# For static installations:
sudo cat /opt/netdata/var/lib/netdata/mcp_dev_preview_api_key

# If not found, search for it:
sudo find / -name "mcp_dev_preview_api_key" 2>/dev/null

Copy the API Key

The file contains a UUID that looks like:

a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890

Copy this entire string - you'll need it for your AI client configuration.

No API Key File?

If the file doesn't exist:

1. Ensure you have a recent version of Netdata
2. Restart Netdata: sudo systemctl restart netdata
3. Check the file again after restart

AI Client Configuration

Most AI clients use a similar configuration format:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "netdata": {
      "command": "/usr/sbin/nd-mcp",
      "args": [
        "ws://IP_OF_YOUR_NETDATA:19999/mcp?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Replace:

• /usr/sbin/nd-mcp - With your actual nd-mcp path
• IP_OF_YOUR_NETDATA: Your Netdata instance IP/hostname
• YOUR_API_KEY: The API key from the file mentioned above

Multiple MCP Servers

You can configure multiple Netdata instances:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "netdata-production": {
      "command": "/usr/sbin/nd-mcp",
      "args": ["ws://prod-parent:19999/mcp?api_key=PROD_KEY"]
    },
    "netdata-testing": {
      "command": "/usr/sbin/nd-mcp",
      "args": ["ws://test-parent:19999/mcp?api_key=TEST_KEY"]
    }
  }
}

Note: Most AI clients have difficulty choosing between multiple MCP servers. You may need to enable/disable them manually.