Observe MCP Server

Observe Community MCP Server

Python FastAPI PostgreSQL Model Context Protocol Observe

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides LLMs with intelligent access to Observe platform data through semantic search, automated dataset discovery, and metrics intelligence.

What This Does

This MCP server transforms how LLMs interact with observability data by providing intelligent discovery and search capabilities for the Observe platform. Instead of requiring users to know specific dataset names or metric structures, it enables natural language queries that automatically find relevant data sources and provide contextual analysis.

Key Features:

Smart Dataset Discovery: Find relevant datasets using natural language descriptions
Metrics Intelligence: Discover and understand metrics with automated categorization and usage guidance
Documentation Search: Fast BM25-powered search through Observe documentation and OPAL reference
OPAL Query Execution: Run queries against any Observe dataset with multi-dataset join support
OpenTelemetry Integration: Built-in Observe agent for collecting application telemetry data
Zero External Dependencies: Self-contained with PostgreSQL BM25 search

⚠️ EXPERIMENTAL: This is a community-built MCP server for testing and collaboration. A production version is available to Observe customers through official channels.

Available Tools

The server provides 5 intelligent tools for Observe platform interaction:

🔍 Discovery & Search

discover_datasets: Find datasets using natural language queries with intelligent categorization and usage examples
discover_metrics: Search through analyzed metrics with business/technical categorization and relevance scoring
get_relevant_docs: Search Observe documentation and OPAL language reference using fast PostgreSQL BM25 search

⚡ Query Execution

execute_opal_query: Run OPAL queries against single or multiple Observe datasets with comprehensive error handling

🤖 System Integration

get_system_prompt: Retrieve the system prompt that configures LLMs as Observe platform experts

Each tool includes authentication validation, error handling, and structured result formatting optimized for LLM consumption.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Docker & Docker Compose (recommended approach)
Python 3.11+ (for manual installation)
Observe API credentials (customer ID and token)

1. Clone and Configure

git clone https://github.com/your-repo/observe-community-mcp.git
cd observe-community-mcp

# Copy and configure environment
cp .env.template .env
# Edit .env with your Observe credentials (see below)

2. Environment Configuration

Edit your .env file with these required values:

# Observe Platform Access
OBSERVE_CUSTOMER_ID="your_customer_id"
OBSERVE_TOKEN="your_api_token"
OBSERVE_DOMAIN="observeinc.com"

# MCP Authentication (see Authentication section)
PUBLIC_KEY_PEM="-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----
your_public_key_content_here
-----END PUBLIC KEY-----"

# Database Security
SEMANTIC_GRAPH_PASSWORD="your_secure_postgres_password"

# OpenTelemetry Collection (optional)
OBSERVE_OTEL_TOKEN="your_otel_token_here"
OBSERVE_OTEL_CUSTOMER_ID="your_customer_id_here"
OBSERVE_OTEL_DOMAIN="observeinc.com"

3. Start with Docker (Recommended)

# Build and start all services
docker-compose up --build

# The server will be available at http://localhost:8000

4. Initialize Intelligence Systems

Run these commands locally to populate the intelligence databases:

# Activate virtual environment
source .venv/bin/activate

# Populate documentation search index
python scripts/setup_bm25_docs.py

# Build dataset intelligence (analyzes datasets in your Observe instance)
python scripts/datasets_intelligence.py

# Build metrics intelligence (analyzes metrics with categorization)
python scripts/metrics_intelligence.py

5. Connect with Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "observe-community": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote@latest",
        "http://localhost:8000/sse",
        "--header", "Authorization: Bearer your_mcp_token_here"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Architecture

The MCP server uses a modern, self-contained architecture built for performance and reliability:

System Overview

Core Components

Component	Technology	Purpose
MCP Server	FastAPI + MCP Protocol	Tool definitions and request handling
Observe Integration	Python asyncio + Observe API	Dataset queries and metadata access
Search Engine	PostgreSQL + ParadeDB BM25	Fast documentation and content search
Intelligence Systems	PostgreSQL + Rule-based Analysis	Dataset and metrics discovery with categorization
OpenTelemetry Collector	OTEL Collector Contrib	Application telemetry collection and forwarding
Authentication	JWT + RSA signatures	Secure access control

Database Schema

PostgreSQL with Extensions:

pg_search (ParadeDB BM25) - Fast full-text search
Standard PostgreSQL - Metadata storage and analysis

Key Tables:

datasets_intelligence - Analyzed dataset metadata with categories and usage patterns
metrics_intelligence - Analyzed metrics with business/technical categorization
documentation_chunks - Searchable documentation content with BM25 indexing

Intelligence Systems

Dataset Intelligence

Automatically categorizes and analyzes all Observe datasets to enable natural language discovery:

Categories:

Business: Application, Infrastructure, Database, User, Security, Network
Technical: Logs, Metrics, Traces, Events, Resources
Usage Patterns: Common query examples, grouping suggestions, typical use cases

Example Query: "Find kubernetes error logs" → Automatically discovers and ranks Kubernetes log datasets

Metrics Intelligence

Analyzes metrics from Observe with comprehensive metadata:

Analysis Includes:

Categorization: Business domain (Infrastructure/Application/Database) + Technical type (Error/Latency/Performance)
Dimensions: Common grouping fields with cardinality analysis
Usage Guidance: Typical aggregation functions, alerting patterns, troubleshooting approaches
Value Analysis: Data ranges, frequencies, and patterns

Example Query: "CPU memory utilization metrics" → Returns relevant infrastructure performance metrics with usage guidance

Documentation Search

Fast BM25 full-text search through:

Complete OPAL language reference
Observe platform documentation
Query examples and troubleshooting guides

Search Features:

Relevance scoring with BM25 algorithm
Context-aware chunk retrieval
No external API dependencies

OpenTelemetry Integration

The MCP server includes built-in OpenTelemetry collection via a standard OpenTelemetry Collector, enabling comprehensive application monitoring and observability.

OpenTelemetry Collector

The included OpenTelemetry Collector acts as a telemetry gateway that:

Receives telemetry data from instrumented applications via OTLP protocol
Forwards data to Observe using the standard OTLP HTTP exporter with proper authentication
Adds resource attributes for proper service identification and categorization
Handles retries and buffering for reliable data delivery
Provides debug output for development visibility

Available Endpoints

When the server is running, applications can send telemetry data to:

Protocol	Endpoint	Usage
OTLP gRPC	`http://otel-collector:4317`	Recommended for production (within Docker network)
OTLP HTTP	`http://otel-collector:4318`	Alternative for HTTP-based integrations
Health Check	`http://otel-collector:13133/`	Collector health monitoring

Configuration

The OpenTelemetry Collector is configured via otel-collector-config.yaml with:

# OTLP receivers for application telemetry
receivers:
  otlp:
    protocols:
      grpc:
        endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4317
      http:
        endpoint: 0.0.0.0:4318

# Processors for data enrichment and batching
processors:
  batch:
    send_batch_size: 1024
    timeout: 1s
  resource:
    attributes:
      - key: "deployment.environment"
        value: "development"
        action: upsert

# Exporters to send data to Observe
exporters:
  otlphttp:
    endpoint: "https://${OBSERVE_OTEL_CUSTOMER_ID}.collect.${OBSERVE_OTEL_DOMAIN}/v2/otel"
    headers:
      authorization: "Bearer ${OBSERVE_OTEL_TOKEN}"
  debug:
    verbosity: basic

# Service pipelines for traces, metrics, and logs
service:
  pipelines:
    traces:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [resource, batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp, debug]
    metrics:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [resource, batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp, debug]
    logs:
      receivers: [otlp]
      processors: [resource, batch]
      exporters: [otlphttp, debug]

Instrumentation Example

To instrument your Python code with OpenTelemetry:

from opentelemetry import trace
from opentelemetry.exporter.otlp.proto.grpc.trace_exporter import OTLPSpanExporter
from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import TracerProvider
from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export import BatchSpanProcessor

# Configure OTLP exporter to send to OpenTelemetry Collector
otlp_exporter = OTLPSpanExporter(
    endpoint="http://otel-collector:4317",  # Within Docker network
    insecure=True
)

# Set up tracing
trace.set_tracer_provider(TracerProvider())
trace.get_tracer_provider().add_span_processor(
    BatchSpanProcessor(otlp_exporter)
)

# Create spans
tracer = trace.get_tracer(__name__)
with tracer.start_as_current_span("operation"):
    # Your application code here
    pass

Data Flow

Application Code → Generates traces, metrics, logs via OTEL SDK
OpenTelemetry Collector → Receives OTLP data on ports 4317/4318
Collector Processing → Adds resource attributes, batches data, provides debug output
OTLP HTTP Export → Sends data to Observe platform with proper authentication
Observe Platform → Receives processed telemetry for analysis

The collector automatically handles authentication, retry logic, and reliable data delivery to the Observe platform.

Authentication

MCP Server Authentication

The server uses JWT-based authentication to control access:

# Generate RSA key pair
openssl genrsa -out private_key.pem 2048
openssl rsa -in private_key.pem -pubout -out public_key.pem

# Add public key to .env file
cat public_key.pem  # Copy to PUBLIC_KEY_PEM

# Generate user tokens
./scripts/generate_mcp_token.sh 'user@example.com' 'admin,read,write' '4H'

Observe API Access

Important Security Note: Once authenticated to the MCP server, users assume the identity and permissions of the Observe API token configured in the environment. Use Observe RBAC to limit the token's permissions appropriately.

Maintenance

Update Intelligence Data

# Activate virtual environment
source .venv/bin/activate

# Refresh dataset intelligence (when new datasets are added)
python scripts/datasets_intelligence.py

# Update metrics intelligence (daily recommended)
python scripts/metrics_intelligence.py

# Rebuild documentation index (when docs change)
python scripts/setup_bm25_docs.py

Monitor Performance

# Check server logs
docker logs observe-mcp-server

# Check database status
docker exec observe-semantic-graph psql -U semantic_graph -d semantic_graph -c "\dt"

# Check search performance
docker logs observe-mcp-server | grep "docs search"

Troubleshooting

Common Issues:

Empty search results: Run intelligence scripts to populate data
Slow performance: Check PostgreSQL connection and restart if needed
Authentication failures: Verify JWT token and public key configuration
Missing datasets: Confirm Observe API credentials and network access

Performance Expectations:

The system is designed for fast response times:

Dataset discovery: < 2 seconds
Metrics discovery: < 1 second
Documentation search: < 500ms
Intelligence updates: Run when data changes

Development

Manual Setup

# Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Start containers
docker-compose build
docker-compose up -d

# Initialize intelligence systems
python scripts/setup_bm25_docs.py
python scripts/datasets_intelligence.py
python scripts/metrics_intelligence.py

# Run server
python observe_server.py

Available Scripts

Script	Purpose	Runtime
`scripts/setup_bm25_docs.py`	Initialize documentation search index	~30 seconds
`scripts/datasets_intelligence.py`	Analyze and categorize all datasets	~5-10 minutes
`scripts/metrics_intelligence.py`	Analyze and categorize metrics	~5-10 minutes
`scripts/generate_mcp_token.sh`	Generate JWT tokens for authentication	Instant

Contributing

This project demonstrates modern approaches to LLM-native observability tooling. Issues, feature requests, and pull requests are welcome.

Architecture Principles:

Self-contained (minimal external dependencies)
Fast (< 2 second response times)
Intelligent (automated categorization and discovery)
Reliable (comprehensive error handling)

This server cannot be installed

security - not tested

license - permissive license

quality - not tested

How are these scores calculated?

hybrid server

The server is able to function both locally and remotely, depending on the configuration or use case.

A Model Context Protocol server that provides access to Observe API functionality, enabling LLMs to execute OPAL queries, manage datasets/monitors, and leverage vector search for documentation and troubleshooting runbooks.

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