Ops MCP Server Skill

Access your infrastructure's observability data and execute operational procedures through a unified MCP interface.

Capabilities at a Glance

Setup (first-time)

# 1. Use mcporter with npx (no installation needed)
# Or install globally: npm i -g mcporter

# 2. Register the server
cd ~/.openclaw/workspace
npx mcporter config add ops-mcp-server --url http://localhost/mcp

# 3. Authenticate (if needed)
npx mcporter auth ops-mcp-server
# On failure, add to ~/.openclaw/workspace/config/mcporter.json:
# "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" }

# 4. Verify
npx mcporter list ops-mcp-server
npx mcporter call ops-mcp-server list-events-from-ops page_size=5

# 5. Set env var
export OPS_MCP_SERVER_URL="http://localhost/mcp"

How to Investigate: Decision Guide

When a user describes a problem, use this guide to choose starting tools and build a complete picture.

🔴 "Something is broken / service is down"

1. Kubernetes Events first — check if pods crashed, restarted, or got evicted get-events-from-ops subject_pattern="ops.clusters.*.namespaces.<ns>.pods.*.events"
2. Logs — search for errors around the time of the incident query-logs-from-elasticsearch query="FROM logs-* | WHERE @timestamp > NOW() - 30 minutes | WHERE level == 'error' | LIMIT 50"
3. Traces — find failed or slow requests find-traces-from-jaeger serviceName=<service> tags={"error":"true"}

🟡 "Performance is degraded / requests are slow"

1. Metrics — check resource saturation query-metrics-from-prometheus query="100 - (avg(rate(node_cpu_seconds_total{mode='idle'}[5m])) * 100)" query-metrics-range-from-prometheus query="node_memory_MemAvailable_bytes" time_range="1h" step="1m"
2. Traces — find slow spans find-traces-from-jaeger serviceName=<service> durationMin=1000
3. Logs — look for timeouts or slow query warnings

🔵 "I need to run a procedure / restart something"

1. List available SOPs list-sops-from-ops
2. Get parameters list-sops-parameters-from-ops sops_id=<id>
3. Execute execute-sops-from-ops sops_id=<id> parameters='{...}'

🟢 "General health check / nothing specific"

Start with events + a key metrics query, then go deeper based on what you find.

Tool Quick Reference

Events — NATS subject pattern format

# Namespace resources
ops.clusters.{cluster}.namespaces.{ns}.{resourceType}.{name}.{observation}

# Node level
ops.clusters.{cluster}.nodes.{nodeName}.{observation}

# Notifications
ops.notifications.providers.{provider}.channels.{channel}.severities.{severity}

Wildcards: * = one segment, > = everything remaining (tail only)

Observation types: status | events | alerts | findings

Time is Unix milliseconds: $(date +%s)000

Logs — ES|QL query patterns

-- Recent errors
FROM logs-* | WHERE @timestamp > NOW() - 30 minutes | WHERE level == 'error' | LIMIT 100

-- Top errors by frequency
FROM logs-* | WHERE @timestamp > NOW() - 1 hour | WHERE level == 'error'
| STATS count() BY message | SORT count DESC | LIMIT 10

-- Specific service
FROM logs-* | WHERE service == 'checkout-service' | WHERE @timestamp > NOW() - 1 hour | LIMIT 50

Metrics — PromQL patterns

# CPU usage
100 - (avg(rate(node_cpu_seconds_total{mode="idle"}[5m])) by (instance) * 100)

# Memory available
node_memory_MemAvailable_bytes

# HTTP error rate
rate(http_requests_total{status=~"5.."}[5m])

Detailed Examples & Reference Files

For complete parameter lists, output formats, and advanced patterns, read the relevant file:

• events → examples/events.md
• metrics → examples/metrics.md
• logs → examples/logs.md
• traces → examples/traces.md
• sops → examples/sops.md
• event subject format design → references/design.md

Read the relevant example file before making complex tool calls you're unsure about.

What This Skill is NOT For

• Direct infrastructure changes (use dedicated automation tooling)
• Real-time alerting (investigation only, not a monitoring agent)
• Writing to or modifying operational data (all access is read-only)