Usage Examples
This document shows how to interact with the OBI MCP Server through an AI assistant like Claude.
Prerequisites
- OBI MCP Server is running and configured in your MCP client
- OBI binary is installed on your system
- You have necessary permissions (root/sudo) for eBPF
Example Conversations
1. Checking OBI Status
User:
Is OBI running on my system?
AI Assistant (using obi_get_status):
=== OBI Status ===
Status: stopped
User:
Check OBI status with detailed information
AI Assistant (using obi_get_status with verbose=true):
=== OBI Status ===
Status: running
PID: 45123
Uptime: 3600s
--- Details ---
CPU Usage: 2.34%
Memory Usage: 128.45 MB
Config Path: /home/user/.obi/obi-config.yml
2. Deploying OBI (Coming Soon - v0.1.0)
User:
Deploy OBI with default configuration
AI Assistant (using obi_deploy_local):
Deploying OBI in standalone mode...
✓ Config file created at: /home/user/.obi/obi-config.yml
✓ OBI started successfully with PID 45678
✓ Logs available at: /home/user/.obi/obi.log
OBI is now running and collecting telemetry!
3. Viewing Logs (Coming Soon - v0.1.0)
User:
Show me the last 50 lines of OBI logs
AI Assistant (using obi_get_logs):
=== OBI Logs (Last 50 Lines) ===
[2025-11-14 10:23:45] [INFO] OBI started successfully
[2025-11-14 10:23:46] [INFO] Network monitoring enabled
[2025-11-14 10:23:47] [INFO] Capturing flows on interface eth0
[2025-11-14 10:23:50] [INFO] network_flow: src=10.0.1.5 dst=10.0.1.10 proto=HTTP
...
4. Configuration Management (Coming Soon - v0.1.0)
User:
Update OBI config to enable Kubernetes metadata
AI Assistant (using obi_update_config):
Updating OBI configuration...
✓ Configuration updated successfully
✓ Kubernetes metadata collection enabled
Note: Restart OBI for changes to take effect.
Would you like me to restart it now?
User:
Yes, restart OBI
AI Assistant:
Restarting OBI...
✓ OBI stopped gracefully
✓ OBI started with new configuration (PID: 45890)
Configuration changes are now active!
5. Troubleshooting (Coming Soon - v0.2.0)
User:
OBI seems to have stopped working. Can you diagnose the issue?
AI Assistant (using diagnose-obi-issues prompt):
Running OBI diagnostics...
Checking status... ✗ OBI is not running
Checking logs... Found error: "Permission denied for eBPF"
Diagnosis:
The issue is likely related to insufficient permissions. OBI requires
root privileges or CAP_BPF capability to load eBPF programs.
Recommended fixes:
1. Run with sudo: sudo obi
2. Or grant capabilities: sudo setcap cap_bpf+ep /path/to/obi
3. Check kernel version: OBI requires Linux 5.8+
Would you like me to check your kernel version?
6. Network Flow Analysis (Coming Soon - v0.2.0)
User:
Analyze the network flows from the last 10 minutes
AI Assistant (using analyze-network-flows prompt):
=== Network Flow Analysis (Last 10 Minutes) ===
Total Flows: 1,247
Unique Sources: 15
Unique Destinations: 32
Top Protocols:
- HTTP: 856 flows (68.6%)
- gRPC: 312 flows (25.0%)
- Redis: 79 flows (6.3%)
Top Source IPs:
1. 10.0.1.5 → 423 flows (frontend-service)
2. 10.0.1.10 → 298 flows (api-gateway)
3. 10.0.1.15 → 186 flows (worker-pod)
Top Destination IPs:
1. 10.0.2.20 → 521 flows (database)
2. 10.0.2.25 → 334 flows (cache-redis)
3. 10.0.2.30 → 187 flows (auth-service)
Insights:
- High traffic to database (10.0.2.20) - consider read replicas
- Redis traffic looks normal
- No anomalous patterns detected
Advanced Use Cases
Comparing Performance Before/After Changes
User:
I just deployed a new version. Compare network flows
before and after the deployment.
AI Assistant:
Comparing network flows...
Before Deployment (10:00-10:30):
- Avg latency: 45ms
- Error rate: 0.2%
- Total flows: 1,850
After Deployment (10:30-11:00):
- Avg latency: 38ms ↓ 15.6% improvement
- Error rate: 0.1% ↓ 50% improvement
- Total flows: 1,920 ↑ 3.8% increase
✓ Deployment appears successful!
Performance improved across all metrics.
Detecting Issues
User:
Are there any unusual patterns in the last hour?
AI Assistant:
Analyzing patterns...
⚠️ Anomaly Detected:
Unusual spike in errors from frontend-service (10.0.1.5)
to auth-service (10.0.2.30):
Normal error rate: 0.1%
Current error rate: 5.3% (53x increase)
Time: Started 15 minutes ago
Affected requests: 127 failed out of 2,392
Recommendation:
Check auth-service logs and health status. May be experiencing
degraded performance or connectivity issues.
Would you like me to investigate further?
Tips for Best Results
Be Specific
❌ Vague: “Check OBI” ✓ Specific: “Show me OBI status with CPU and memory usage”
Use Natural Language
❌ Command-like: “obi_get_logs —lines=100” ✓ Natural: “Show me the last 100 lines from OBI logs”
Context Matters
Provide context for better assistance:
- “I just deployed a new version, check if OBI detected any changes”
- “We’re experiencing high latency, can OBI help identify the bottleneck?”
- “Set up OBI to monitor my Python microservices”
Iterative Analysis
Break complex tasks into steps:
- “Check if OBI is running”
- “Show me recent logs”
- “Analyze network flows from the last hour”
- “Compare with previous hour”
Coming Soon Features
These examples will work once the respective phases are completed:
- Docker Deployment (v0.3.0): “Deploy OBI as a Docker container”
- Kubernetes Integration (v0.3.0): “Deploy OBI to my k8s cluster”
- Latency Analysis (v0.3.0): “Show me p95 latency for my services”
- Cost Estimation (v1.0.0): “Estimate the cost of current telemetry volume”
For more examples and use cases, check the documentation or join our community discussions!