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For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt. This page is also available as Markdown.

Concepts

Understand core concepts of Lenses

Environments

Environments in Lenses represent your Kafka environments, not only the brokers. They also contain supporting services, such as Kafka Connect clusters and Schema Registries.

In Lenses, you can register one or more environments. Each environment has an agent key.

Agents

Each environment needs a Lenses Agent. The agent connects to your Kafka brokers and other services. It proxies information and actions to and from Lenses.

Each agent is controlled by a provisioning file. This file contains the connection details needed to connect to your services.

The minimum configuration is an agent key to establish the connection to Lenses. You receive it after you create an environment. You can regenerate a lost key.

Once your agent is started, it will connect to HQ and establish connectivity with the services you configured in the provisioning file.

You can also use Lenses to update the agent's configuration. The agent must be started and connected first.

Lenses Agent configuration screen

MCP Server

Lenses MCP Server makes your Kafka infrastructure accessible to AI tools and agents. It implements the Model Context Protocol standard, allowing Claude, Cursor and other AI applications to safely interact with Lenses and your multi-Kafka multi-vendor estate.

MCP components

  • MCP Client: Your AI tool (Claude, Cursor, etc.) that initiates requests. The client discovers what the MCP server can do and calls tools with parameters you specify in natural language.

  • MCP Server: The Lenses MCP Server runs locally or in your infrastructure and acts as a bridge to Lenses HQ. It:

    • Validates OAuth tokens or API keys

    • Executes tools against Lenses APIs

    • Returns results formatted for AI consumption

  • MCP Tools: Each capability exposed by the MCP Server (topics, connectors, SQL queries, environments, etc.) is a "tool" that your AI assistant can call.

Authentication and security

The MCP Server supports OAuth 2.1 as the primary authentication method, providing:

  • Secure token-based authentication without sharing static keys

  • Scope-based authorization (read, write, delete)

  • Token introspection for every request

  • Enterprise security suitable for production

API keys are supported as a fallback for backward compatibility and local testing.

See OAuth 2.1 Configuration for details on setting up OAuth with the MCP server.

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