Kibana Dashboards and Lens Visualizations

Create, update, and delete Kibana dashboards and standalone Lens visualizations using the Kibana 9.4+ Dashboards and Visualizations APIs. Produce minimal, diffable JSON bodies; prefer inline panel definitions over library references; choose the correct dataset type (data view vs ES|QL) before writing metrics or chart layers; and follow the design guidance in Dashboard Design Guidelines and Chart Design Guidelines so the result reads like a well-made Kibana dashboard, not a schema dump.

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Environment Configuration

This skill executes Elasticsearch operations through the elastic CLI. If the elastic CLI is not installed, tell the user what it is needed for. Do not guess credentials, call the HTTP API directly, or attempt other workarounds.

This skill references operations in HTTP-shorthand form (e.g., GET /, GET /_cat/indices, GET /{index}/_mapping, GET /{index}/_settings/index.mode, POST /_query). The Operations table at the end of this document maps each shorthand to the equivalent elastic CLI command, always use the CLI rather than calling the HTTP API directly.

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Prerequisites

Version requirement: Kibana 9.4+ (Dashboards and Visualizations APIs).

ES|QL placement:

• Standalone library charts: PUT kbn:/api/visualizations/{id} with data_source.type: "esql".
• ES|QL panels embedded in a dashboard: inline vis panel config with data_source.type: "esql" via PUT kbn:/api/dashboards/{id}.
• Do not use data_source.type: "data_view_reference" or index-pattern aggregations when the user explicitly requests ES|QL, the persisted Lens state must use a text-based ES|QL datasource (textBased / esql), not a data-view count operation.

Process