Why Netdata Is in the Spotlight
In a fast-moving AI and DevOps ecosystem, tools that deliver real-time metrics and observability to AI assistants are invaluable — and this week, Netdata proves it. This week, the Netdata MCP server topped the PulseMCP chart — a trend that’s easy to track using MCP Now, the all-in-one desktop app for discovering and managing MCP servers. The Netdata MCP server surged from relative obscurity to a top spot on the PulseMCP weekly chart with tens of thousands of new deployments, reflecting a groundswell of interest among AI developers.
Announced on June 18, 2025 by Netdata’s founder Costa Tsaousis, this integration makes Netdata one of the first major monitoring platforms to adopt the Model Context Protocol. In joining the MCP ecosystem, Netdata built a “crucial link between artificial intelligence and practical systems,” enabling AI to communicate with live infrastructure data rather than operating in the dark. The result: Netdata MCP is rapidly becoming a core component for engineers building metrics-aware AI agents that truly understand their environment.
Netdata’s leap in popularity highlights a growing need in AI development: live observability. Until now, even advanced LLM-based ops assistants were essentially flying blind, lacking access to current system health and performance data. By implementing MCP, Netdata bridges this gap, acting as a real-time conduit between AI agents and rich telemetry. It’s a timely solution; as AI-driven automation finds its way into on-call rotations and SRE playbooks, having up-to-date metrics and alerts at an AI’s fingertips can mean the difference between a proactive fix and a prolonged outage.
What Netdata Does
Netdata is an open-source observability platform known for real-time, per-second monitoring of systems, containers, applications, and more. In the MCP context, every Netdata Agent doubles as an MCP server. This means any running Netdata instance can serve live telemetry to AI assistants without additional installation or plugins.
The Netdata MCP server provides read-only access to a comprehensive array of observability data, including system metrics, logs, alerts, and even contextual information about running processes and network connections. In practice, it transforms your infrastructure into a queryable knowledge base for AI:
Full-spectrum metrics: AI agents can fetch current CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics (and thousands of other time-series) in real time. Netdata exposes all monitored metrics with full-text search across context and dimensions.
System and state information: The interface provides metadata about nodes (hardware specs, OS, running containers) and active alerts or events.
Anomaly detection and root cause clues: Built-in machine learning allows agents to query for anomalies or get metrics scoring that correlates related metrics to help pinpoint root causes.
Observability without friction: The MCP server is integrated into Netdata. Communication happens over a WebSocket-based protocol, streaming data on demand. This reduces hallucinations and ensures responses are grounded in live telemetry.
By acting as an AI-accessible observability layer, Netdata MCP gives large language models situational awareness, enabling smarter, context-aware responses.
Developers can explore and launch Netdata MCP servers through MCP Now, our desktop app.
Why It’s Gaining Traction
Netdata’s rapid adoption in the MCP world is being driven by several converging trends:
AI Ops moves mainstream: AI “co-pilots” for operations are emerging across teams. Netdata MCP gives these tools access to the telemetry they need to troubleshoot effectively.
Stale training data limits utility: Most AI models are trained on past data. Netdata provides real-time metrics that keep assistants relevant and actionable.
Built-in convenience: With tens of thousands of users already running Netdata, its MCP capability requires no separate setup. It’s a frictionless upgrade.
Observability + AI is an industry trend: The emergence of other observability vendors embracing MCP validates this direction and positions Netdata as a pioneer.
Customization and control: Netdata’s implementation allows for fine-grained access control and secure integration, appealing to enterprise and security-focused teams.
Real-World Use Cases
AI Ops Assistants: Agents integrated into Slack or OpsGenie can use Netdata to answer live queries like “Why is service X slow?” or “What errors occurred after the last deploy?”
Autonomous Troubleshooters: Self-healing agents can use real metrics to confirm issues, take action, and validate resolution — all grounded in actual telemetry.
Intelligent Dashboards: Engineers can query Netdata through natural language for live summaries, trends, or anomaly reports, turning observability into an interactive conversation.
These use cases reduce response times, improve visibility, and unlock more sophisticated AI capabilities in DevOps environments.
MCP Now Quick Start Guide: Set Up Netdata MCP Server
Prerequisites
Ensure your AI assistant (e.g., Claude Desktop) is installed and supports MCP. If it's already installed, make sure it’s updated to the latest version.
1. Add Your AI Assistant as a Host
Open MCP Now.
Click Dashboard in the left navigation bar.
Click Scan for Hosts. MCP Now will automatically detect all MCP-compatible apps on your computer.
Select Claude Desktop (or your preferred app), then click Add Selected Host.
Launch Claude Desktop to connect it to MCP Now. If needed, relaunch it to update its status to Connected.
2. Add the Netdata MCP Server
In the Dashboard page, select your assistant (e.g., Claude Desktop).
Click Add Server.
Enter Netdata in the search bar. When you see Netdata MCP Server in the results, click Set Up.
3. Fill the Configuration Form
Connection Method: Select WebSocket from the dropdown.
WebSocket URL: Enter ws://localhost:19999/mcp (or replace localhost with your Netdata server’s IP/domain).
Headers (Optional): If authentication is enabled, include your API key as a header (e.g., Authorization: Bearer <your_token>).
Scope: Leave as default or restrict to specific nodes if desired.
Click Set Up to install and connect the Netdata MCP server in MCP Now.
What’s Next for Netdata
Multi-node support via Netdata Cloud: AI agents will soon gain unified visibility across your entire fleet.
Enhanced authentication: More secure, permissioned access using Netdata Cloud SSO and API keys.
Deeper tooling: Expect better integration with dashboards, visualizations, and MCP client tools.
Proactive insights: Future versions may let the AI receive Netdata-generated health suggestions.
Community plugins: As the project is open-source, expect community-built MCP tools to expand the feature set even further.
Final Takeaway
Netdata’s MCP server is a turning point for metrics-aware AI. It bridges the gap between AI assistants and real-world system data, enabling smarter responses, faster debugging, and proactive automation. For teams building LLM-powered operations or DevOps tooling, Netdata MCP is an essential integration that brings observability into the age of intelligent agents.