Honeycomb MCP for AI agents
Agents read Honeycomb MCP at once. Changes and sends are held for a person's approval by default.
About Honeycomb MCP
Honeycomb is an observability platform for high-cardinality event data. The Honeycomb MCP server lets agents query datasets, run analyses and inspect telemetry.
What an agent can do in Honeycomb MCP
Every Honeycomb MCP action is classed by the platform as a read, a change or a send. Reads run at once. Changes and sends are held for a person by default.
Runs at once (reads)
Looks things up in Honeycomb MCP without asking first. 23 actions.
- Canvas agent poll responsePoll for the result of a previously-issued canvas_agent_invoke call. Pass the investigation_id and session_id returned from canvas_agent_invoke. Each call waits up to wait_seconds (default 30, max 50)
- Find columnsSearch for columns and calculated fields by intent across one or all datasets in an environment. When to use: - "What column has the error rate?" / "Find columns related to duration or latency" — inte
- Find queriesSearch query history and saved queries by intent; returns matching queries with their run PKs. When to use: - "Has anyone queried the error rate for checkout?" — check existing work before composing a
- Get aiconversationFetch the full event timeline for a single AI conversation, identified by its OpenTelemetry gen_ai.conversation.id attribute value. Prefer this over ad-hoc run_query filtered by conversation ID — it r
- Get datasetGet dataset metadata and its full column schema (columns + calculated fields), sorted by most recent write activity. When to use: - "What columns does the api-service dataset have?" — retrieve the sch
- Get dataset columnsGet the full column schema for one dataset, with optional sample values for specific columns. When to use: - Validating column names before composing a run_query (check the column exists and note its
- Get environmentGet details for a specific environment, including its dataset list sorted by most recent activity. When to use: - After get_workspace_context returns environment slugs, drill into one to see which dat
- Get query resultsRetrieve results and metadata from an existing query execution. Accepts a Honeycomb URL, a run_pk, or a query_id (returns most recent run). Provide exactly one of these three inputs. When to use: - Af
- Get signalsReturns Anomaly Signals for the current team. An Anomaly Signal tracks a service in a dataset and detects when its behavior deviates from its historical baseline. Use this tool to investigate a specif
- Get span detailsSummarize attributes and their common values observed on spans with a specific name. USE THIS AFTER list_spans (or whenever you already know a span_name) and BEFORE run_query. It tells you which attri
- Get traceRetrieve all spans for a specific trace ID and render them as a waterfall. When to use: - User pastes a trace ID from logs, a Slack alert, or the Honeycomb UI — fetch it here. - Drilling into a specif
- Get triggersList triggers (alert rules) for the team, or fetch full configuration for a single trigger. When to use: - "What alerts are firing?" / "What triggers do we have?" — list mode (no trigger_id). - "Show
Show all 23
- Get workspace contextCall this tool first to orient yourself in a Honeycomb workspace. Takes no parameters. Returns the team name and slug, the current time, and a list of available environments with their slugs and datas
- List aiconversationsDiscover recent AI agent conversations (gen_ai.conversation.id values) in an environment, ordered by total event count (most active first) with per-agent activity. Use this tool as the starting point
- List boardsList boards (saved dashboards) in an environment, or fetch one board's full contents by ID. When to use: - "What dashboards do we have for service X" / "is there an existing board for Y" — list mode w
- List recipientsList all pre-registered notification recipients (email, Slack, PagerDuty, webhook) for the team. When to use: - Before create_trigger or update_trigger, to find the recipient IDs to attach. - "What Sl
- List spansList span names in trace data, ranked by count, with how often each is a trace root and which dataset the count came from. USE THIS FIRST for any question about what's happening in the system: "what's
- Migration guideVendor-specific guidance for migrating existing telemetry to Honeycomb without disrupting the vendor setup. The onboarding flow's migration branch calls this when it detects a supported vendor.
- Record onboarding stateRecord the current onboarding step. The onboarding flow calls this at each step so the session's MCP activity is attributed to the step it happened in.
- Refinery docsRead Honeycomb Refinery documentation. Refinery is Honeycomb's trace-aware tail-based sampling proxy. Available topics: - overview: Refinery overview and key concepts - architecture: Architecture, dep
- Run bubbleupRun BubbleUp analysis to find what makes a selected data subset different from the baseline. BubbleUp compares value distributions across all schema columns between a "foreground" selection (the inter
- Run queryRun an aggregate query or return a scoped set of raw rows from a Honeycomb dataset. When to use this tool: - "Reconstruct the events for one session" — filter to the session and request the needed raw
- SemconvQuery the semantic convention registry: the latest embedded OTel semconv release merged with Honeycomb's overlay, plus the team's custom schema when one exists. Actions: - search: substring match on n
Held for approval by default (changes and sends)
Held for a person's approval by default. The approval is recorded and the action is sent once, never twice, with 10 seconds to undo. 10 actions.
- Canvas agent invokeKick off a single-turn run of the Honeycomb Canvas agent. Pass investigation_id to extend an existing investigation visible to the caller's team. Omit investigation_id to create a new investigation fo
- Create boardCreate a board (dashboard) with query, SLO, and text panels. When to use: - "Create a dashboard for service X" / "build a board with latency and error queries" — primary creation path. - After running
- Create markerCreates a marker (a vertical annotation on charts) to mark a point or window in time, such as a deploy, incident, or config change. Scope it to one dataset or, with dataset_slug='__all__', the whole e
- Create recipientCreate a notification recipient (email, Slack, PagerDuty, or webhook) so it can be attached to triggers and SLO burn alerts. When to use: - "Alert the on-call channel when this trigger fires" — create
- Create sloCreate an SLO (Service Level Objective) backed by an auto-created SLI derived column. When to use: - "Create an SLO for API latency" / "set a 99.9% availability target" — primary creation path. - When
- Create triggerCreate a trigger that fires alerts when a query result crosses a threshold. When to use: - "Alert me when error rate exceeds 5%" / "page on-call when request count drops below 100" — primary alerting
- FeedbackSubmit feedback about Honeycomb's MCP server to the agentic-intelligence team. When to use: - A tool returned unexpected, wrong, or confusing data. - You wanted a capability that no tool in this serve
- Update boardEdit an existing board (dashboard) in place. Add, remove, update, or reorder panels; rename; and replace preset filters or tags. When to use: - "Add the new error-rate query to the API board" — append
- Update sloUpdate an existing SLO. Only the fields you supply change; omitted fields keep their current values. When to use: - "Tighten the SLO target to 99.95%" / "extend the window to 30 days" — adjust reliabi
- Update triggerUpdate an existing trigger. Partial update — only the fields you supply change; omitted fields keep their current values. When to use: - "Disable this trigger temporarily" — set disabled=true without
Changes wait in Needs you
Changes and sends in Honeycomb MCP are held for a person's approval by default. The approval is recorded, and the action is sent once, never twice, with 10 seconds to undo.
Honeycomb MCP questions
Can an agent change data in Honeycomb MCP on its own?
Not by default. Changes and sends in Honeycomb MCP are held for a person's approval. The approval is recorded, and the action is sent once, never twice, with 10 seconds to undo.
What can an agent read in Honeycomb MCP?
This connector lists 23 read actions. Reads run at once, without waiting for approval.
How does Honeycomb MCP connect?
It connects with dcr oauth. Connectors are built and maintained by third-party developers; availability is confirmed during scoping.