Migrate Kibana Dev MCP Server to Agent Skills

[rmyz]

Summary

Migrates all tools from the @kbn/mcp-dev-server package into AI agent skills under .agents/skills/, and removes the MCP server package entirely.

The MCP dev server exposed 7 tools (list packages, list teams, generate package, run unit tests, run CI checks, search by codeowner, find dependency references) as an MCP protocol server. In practice, these tools are simple wrappers around CLI commands and Kibana internal APIs -- maintaining a full MCP server with its own package, dependencies, and protocol overhead is unnecessary for what they do.

What changed:

• 5 new skill directories created, each with a SKILL.md and (where the logic is non-trivial) a standalone .ts helper script that preserves the exact original implementation:

  • kibana-dev-packages -- list/filter packages and teams, generate new packages
  • run-unit-tests -- run Jest tests for changed files or specific packages, with coverage and JSON output parsing
  • run-ci-checks -- execute CI commands (build, lint, type check, etc.)
  • search-by-codeowner -- search code within files owned by a specific GitHub team
  • find-dependency-references -- find all imports/usage of a dependency grouped by team

• @kbn/mcp-dev-server package deleted -- server code, tool implementations, tests, utilities, and all config references (package.json, tsconfig.base.json, CODEOWNERS, yarn.lock, scripts/mcp_dev.js)

Why this is valuable:

• Less maintenance burden -- removes a full Node.js package with its own build config, moon.yml, tsconfig.json, and MCP protocol plumbing that nobody needs to maintain or keep compatible
• Better discoverability -- skills are markdown files that any AI agent can read directly; no server needs to be running
• Same logic, simpler delivery -- the .ts helper scripts reuse the original tool implementations verbatim, so behavior is identical but the wrapper is a node CLI invocation instead of an MCP protocol call
• ~3,100 lines removed vs ~450 added (net reduction of ~2,650 lines), mostly by dropping tests and utilities that only existed to support the MCP server infrastructure itself
• Unlike the MCP server, which required explicit configuration to use, skills are available immediately to every agent with zero setup.

[rmyz]

/ci

[rmyz]

/ci

[rmyz]

/ci

[elasticmachine]

Pinging @elastic/obs-presentation-team (Team:obs-presentation)

[elasticmachine]

💛 Build succeeded, but was flaky

• Buildkite Build
• Commit: 125dcdf

Failed CI Steps

• Scout: [ security / security_solution ] plugin

Test Failures

• [job] [logs] Scout: [ security / security_solution ] plugin / local-serverless-security_complete - Entity analytics dashboard page - enables risk score followed by the store

Metrics [docs]

Count of Enzyme imports

Enzyme is no longer supported, and we should switch to @testing-library/react instead.

id	before	after	diff
@kbn/mcp-dev-server	16	-	-16

Unknown metric groups

ESLint disabled line counts

id	before	after	diff
@kbn/mcp-dev-server	2	-	-2

Total ESLint disabled count

id	before	after	diff
@kbn/mcp-dev-server	2	-	-2

History

• 💛 Build #399978 was flaky 34fdc2e
• 💔 Build #399934 failed 39f5c44
• 💔 Build #399783 failed a26e473
• 💚 Build #399000 succeeded d55fefd
• 💔 Build #398334 failed dee52fd
• 💔 Build #398289 failed 360caaa

cc @rmyz

[rbrtj]

tested and functionally LGTM

[tylersmalley]

We shouldn't need @kbn/setup-node-env and can just run the ts file directly with node.

[tylersmalley]

I believe @clintandrewhall is still using a few of these, like the unit testing one for code coverage, so might want to confirm with him before we remove all of them without direct replacements.

[tylersmalley]

Please add disable-model-invocation: true

[clintandrewhall]

I use the jest unit test tool because, over time, it has been more consistent in both process and results. This includes improving coverage in a pragmatic way.

My draft PR for fixing docs-- #254836 -- would be difficult to migrate to a skill. Even opus believed it was better suited as a tool than a skill, given what it does: #247774

[tylersmalley]

@rmyz, still working on the review - just had to step away for a bit.

[rmyz]

@tylersmalley @clintandrewhall should we close this PR then?
If you still find value in having the MCP let's keep it as it is, I thought about simplifying it as the use cases could be converted to skills easily, but I'm fine either way.

[rmyz]

I'm closing this as it's been open for a while. If we ever need to migrate away from the MCP server, I'm happy to help.
Meanwhile, it's being used, so we'll keep it as is.