Netdata

Netdata MCP

All Netdata Agents and Parents (v2.6.0+) 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, listening at same port the dashboard is listening at (default: 19999).

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 presented via the Authorization: Bearer header, 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

Transport Options

Netdata implements the MCP protocol with multiple transport options:

• Direct Connection (v2.7.2+): AI clients that support HTTP or SSE transports can connect directly to Netdata
• Bridge Required: AI clients that only support stdio need the nd-mcp (stdio-to-websocket) or mcp-remote (stdio-to-http or stdio-to-sse) bridge

Official MCP Remote Client (mcp-remote)

If your AI client doesn't support HTTP/SSE directly and you don't want to use nd-mcp, you can use the official MCP remote client (requires Netdata v2.7.2+):

# Export your MCP key once per shell

export NETDATA_MCP_API_KEY="$(cat /var/lib/netdata/mcp_dev_preview_api_key)"

For HTTP transport

npx mcp-remote@latest --http http://YOUR_NETDATA_IP:19999/mcp \ --allow-http \ --header "Authorization: Bearer $NETDATA_MCP_API_KEY"

For SSE transport

npx mcp-remote@latest --sse http://YOUR_NETDATA_IP:19999/mcp \ --allow-http \ --header "Authorization: Bearer $NETDATA_MCP_API_KEY"

Note: The --allow-http flag is required for non-HTTPS connections. Only use this on trusted networks as traffic will not be encrypted.

Finding the nd-mcp Bridge

Note: With the new HTTP and SSE transports, many AI clients can now connect directly to Netdata without nd-mcp. Check your AI client's documentation to see if it supports direct HTTP or SSE connections.

The nd-mcp bridge is only needed for AI clients that:

• Only support stdio communication (like some desktop applications)
• Cannot use HTTP or SSE transports directly
• Cannot use npx mcp-remote@latest

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)

1. 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

1. 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

Using MCP Remote Client

The official MCP remote client (mcp-remote) is an alternative bridge that enables stdio-only AI clients to connect to Netdata's HTTP and SSE transports (requires Netdata v2.7.2+). Unlike nd-mcp which only supports WebSocket, mcp-remote provides broader transport compatibility.

When to Use MCP Remote

Use mcp-remote when:

• Your AI client only supports stdio communication
• You want to use HTTP or SSE transports instead of WebSocket
• You're running Netdata v2.7.2 or later
• You don't want to build/install nd-mcp

Installation

No installation required - mcp-remote runs via npx:

# Test the connection

npx mcp-remote@latest --http http://YOUR_NETDATA_IP:19999/mcp \ --allow-http \ --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Transport Options

mcp-remote supports multiple transport strategies:

# HTTP transport (recommended)

npx mcp-remote@latest --http http://YOUR_NETDATA_IP:19999/mcp \ --allow-http \ --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

SSE transport

npx mcp-remote@latest --sse http://YOUR_NETDATA_IP:19999/mcp \ --allow-http \ --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Auto-detect with fallback (tries SSE first, falls back to HTTP)

npx mcp-remote@latest --transport sse-first http://YOUR_NETDATA_IP:19999/mcp \ --allow-http \ --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

HTTPS (no --allow-http flag needed)

npx mcp-remote@latest --http https://YOUR_NETDATA_IP:19999/mcp \ --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Common Options

Authentication

For Netdata MCP, pass the API key via the Authorization header:

# Using environment variable (recommended)

export NETDATA_MCP_API_KEY="$(cat /var/lib/netdata/mcp_dev_preview_api_key)"

npx mcp-remote@latest --http http://YOUR_NETDATA_IP:19999/mcp \ --allow-http \ --header "Authorization: Bearer $NETDATA_MCP_API_KEY"

Security Note: The --allow-http flag is required for non-HTTPS connections. Only use this on trusted networks as traffic will not be encrypted.

Troubleshooting

Connection Issues:

# Enable debug logging

npx mcp-remote@latest --debug --http http