Kibana Object Manager CLI Documentation

A complete revival and rewrite of the Kibana Object Manager plugin.

Quick Start

The intent of kibob is to provide a Git-inspired interface for managing Kibana saved objects.

Dependencies

This script depends on a few other command-line utilities:

1. jsrmx - bundle and unbundle NDJSON: https://github.com/VimCommando/jsrmx
2. curl - make HTTP requests to Kibana: https://curl.se/
3. jq - format, parse, and update JSON: https://stedolan.github.io/jq/
4. grep - filtering and searching text: https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/

Almost every modern unix-based system has grep and curl installed. You'll find jq in every package repo. For jsrmx the easiest way is through Rust's cargo package manager at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/getting-started/installation.html.

Initial Repository Setup

1. Clone this repository
2. Symlink kibob to your $PATH
3. Download the export.ndjson from Kibana and copy it into a new folder
4. In the new folder, run git init to initialize a new Git repository
5. Run kibob init to slice up the export.ndjson into separate files with a manifest.json
6. Use git add . and git commit -m "Initial commit"

You're now tracking your Kibana objects with source control!

⚠️ This script will modify the export.ndjson file. Make sure you made a copy in step 3.

Pull changes directly from Kibana

1. Copy the dotenv/localhost to a .env file in your new repo
2. Update with your Kibana URL and credentials
3. Use kibob pull to fetch updates to any objects listed in the manifest.json

Now use your favorite Git client to review the changes, add and commit as normal.

Push changes back to Kibana

Any changes made in the repository can be pushed back to Kibana using kibob push. Where this is most useful is across different environments, such as development and production. Simply make a different .env file for each environment.

For example use the default .env for your development environment, and create an .env.prod for your production environment.

kibob pull
kibob push --env prod

This will pull all the objects listed in the manifest.json from your dev cluster and push them to your prod cluster! By default all objects are imported with the managed: true flag set, so no changes can be made directoy in production.

CLI Reference

Kibana Object Manager: --{kibob}-> is the Git-flavored side dish to prepare Kibana saved objects for version control!

Usage

kibob <command> [options] <arguments>

Commands

• init Slice up an export.ndjson into objects files and create a manifest.json
• auth Test authorization to a Kibana remote
• pull Fetch saved objects from a Kibana remote
• push Update saved objects in a Kibana remote
• add Add saved objects to the manifest
• togo Order your Kibana objects to go! (bundle an NDJSON for distribution)
• help Get detailed help, use a command name as the argument

Global Options

• -e, --env <NAME|FILE> - The .env.NAME or FILE file to source credentials from (default .env)
• -s, --space <ID> - Kibana space id to use (default default)
• --debug - More verbose logging and retention of temporary files

Add Command

kibob add [output_dir]

Add an object to the menu, err, repository. Exports saved objects by ID, including related objects. Adds entries to the [output_dir]/manifest.json and moves objects into <output_dir>/objects/*.json

Options:

• -o, --objects <IDS> - Comma-separated list of "type=uuid" objects to export from Kibana
• -f, --file <FILE> - Filename of an export.ndjson to merge into existing manifest

Arguments:

• [output_dir] - Directory to save the exported objects to. Must contain a manifest.json file. (default .)

Auth command

kibob auth

Tests the Kibana authorization configuration

Init command

kibob init [export] [manifest_file]

Initializes a Kibana object repository from an export.ndjson.

Arguments:

• [export] - An NDJSON file or directory with an export.ndjson to build a manifest file from (default: export.ndjson)
• [manifest_file] - The manifest file to generate (default: manifest.json)

Pull Command

kibob pull [output_dir]

Export and unbundle the Kibana saved objects listed in [output_dir]/manifest.json into [output_dir]/objects/*.json objects.

Arguments:

• [output_dir] - Directory to save exported objects to. Must contain a manifest.json file.

Push Command

kibob push [input_dir]

Bundle up the [input_dir]/objects/*.json objects to go and deliver them to Kibana!

Options:

• -c, --clean <bool> - Keep the temporary files and directories. (default: true)
• -m, --managed <bool> - Set "managed: false" to allow direct editing in Kibana. (Default: true)

Arguments:

• [input_dir] - A directory containing the manifest.json file to import. (default: .)

Togo Command

kibob togo [input_dir]

Bundle up the [input_dir]/objects/*.json objects into a distributable NDJSON file named ${input_dir}.ndjson

Options:

• -m, --managed <bool> - Set "managed: false" to allow direct editing in Kibana. (Default: true)

Arguments:

• [input_dir] - Directory containing the objects to bundle (default: .)