Kibana Streams

Read stream metadata, settings, queries, significant events, and attachments, and manage stream lifecycle (enable, disable, resync) via the Kibana Streams REST API. Streams are an experimental way to manage data in Kibana — expect API and behavior changes. This skill covers read operations and lifecycle only; create, update, delete, fork, and other mutating operations may be added in a later version.

For detailed endpoints and parameters, see references/streams-api-reference.md.

When to use

• Listing all streams or getting a single stream's definition and metadata

• Reading a stream's ingest or query settings

• Listing a stream's queries

• Reading significant events for a stream

• Listing attachments (dashboards, rules, SLOs) linked to a stream

• Enabling, disabling, or resyncing streams

Prerequisites

Item Description

Kibana URL Kibana endpoint (e.g. https://localhost:5601 or a Cloud deployment URL)

Authentication API key or basic auth (see the elasticsearch-authn skill)

Privileges read_stream for read operations; appropriate privilege for lifecycle APIs

Use the space-scoped path /s/{space_id}/api/streams when operating in a non-default space.

API base and headers

• Base path: GET or POST to <kibana_url>/api/streams (or /s/<space_id>/api/streams for a space).

• Read operations: Typically do not require extra headers; follow the official API docs for each endpoint.

• Lifecycle operations: POST /api/streams/_disable , _enable , and _resync are mutating — send kbn-xsrf: true

(or equivalent) as required by your Kibana version.

Operations (read + lifecycle)

Read

Operation Method Path

Get stream list GET /api/streams

Get a stream GET /api/streams/{name}

Get ingest stream settings GET /api/streams/{name}/_ingest

Get query stream settings GET /api/streams/{name}/_query

Get stream queries GET /api/streams/{name}/queries

Read significant events GET /api/streams/{name}/significant_events

Get stream attachments GET /api/streams/{streamName}/attachments

Lifecycle

Operation Method Path

Disable streams POST /api/streams/_disable

Enable streams POST /api/streams/_enable

Resync streams POST /api/streams/_resync

Path parameters: {name} and {streamName} are the stream identifier (same value; the API docs use both names).

Lifecycle and retention (ingest settings)

Ingest settings (GET /api/streams/{name}/_ingest ) expose two separate lifecycle areas:

• Stream lifecycle (ingest.lifecycle ) — Controls how long the stream's data is retained. Use lifecycle.dsl.data_retention (e.g. "30d" ) for explicit retention, or lifecycle.inherit for child streams. This is what users usually mean when they ask to "set retention", "update retention", or "change the stream's retention".

• Failure store lifecycle (ingest.failure_store.lifecycle ) — Controls retention of failed documents only (documents that did not process successfully). Users rarely need to change this unless they explicitly mention the failure store or failed-document retention.

When a user asks to set or update retention, target the stream's main lifecycle (lifecycle.dsl.data_retention ), not the failure store, unless they specifically ask about failure store or failed documents.

Examples

List streams

curl -X GET "${KIBANA_URL}/api/streams"
-H "Authorization: ApiKey <base64-api-key>"

Get a single stream

curl -X GET "${KIBANA_URL}/api/streams/my-stream"
-H "Authorization: ApiKey <base64-api-key>"

Get stream queries

curl -X GET "${KIBANA_URL}/api/streams/my-stream/queries"
-H "Authorization: ApiKey <base64-api-key>"

Get significant events or attachments

Significant events

curl -X GET "${KIBANA_URL}/api/streams/my-stream/significant_events"
-H "Authorization: ApiKey <base64-api-key>"

Attachments (dashboards, rules, SLOs linked to the stream)

curl -X GET "${KIBANA_URL}/api/streams/my-stream/attachments"
-H "Authorization: ApiKey <base64-api-key>"

Disable, enable, or resync streams

Disable streams (request body per API docs) — warn user and confirm before proceeding

curl -X POST "${KIBANA_URL}/api/streams/_disable"
-H "Authorization: ApiKey <base64-api-key>"
-H "kbn-xsrf: true"
-H "Content-Type: application/json"
-d '{}'

Enable streams

curl -X POST "${KIBANA_URL}/api/streams/_enable"
-H "Authorization: ApiKey <base64-api-key>"
-H "kbn-xsrf: true"
-H "Content-Type: application/json"
-d '{}'

Resync streams

curl -X POST "${KIBANA_URL}/api/streams/_resync"
-H "Authorization: ApiKey <base64-api-key>"
-H "kbn-xsrf: true"
-H "Content-Type: application/json"
-d '{}'

Check the Streams API operation pages for request/response bodies (e.g. request body for _disable/_enable/_resync if required).

Guidelines

• When the user asks to set or update retention, assume they mean the stream's data retention (ingest.lifecycle / lifecycle.dsl.data_retention ). Do not change only the failure store retention unless they explicitly ask about the failure store or failed documents.

• Other mutating operations (create, update, delete, fork, bulk query management, attachment management, and more) are not supported by this skill. See references/streams-api-reference.md for the full list of deferred operations.

• Disabling streams can lead to data loss. Before calling the disable API, warn the user and confirm they understand the risk (and have backed up or no longer need the data).

• Prefer read operations when the user only needs to inspect stream state; use lifecycle APIs when they need to enable, disable, or resync streams.