camel-kb MCP

A small, offline MCP server that documents Apache Camel core functionality, components, EIPs, languages, and data formats.

It builds a SQLite FTS5 knowledge base from the official camel-catalog jar and exposes Camel-native tools over stdio. It is intentionally smaller than camel-jbang-mcp: no running Camel context, no Java service, only catalog facts and curated concept notes.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+

• The camel-catalog jar for the target Camel version, normally already in ~/.m2 after a Camel or JBang build

Related MCP server: sqlite-rag-mcp

Setup

npm install
npm run ingest
npm run build

ingest resolves the catalog in this order:

1. CAMEL_CATALOG_JAR

2. ~/.m2/repository/org/apache/camel/camel-catalog/<version>/camel-catalog-<version>.jar

3. .cache/camel-catalog-<version>.jar

4. Maven Central download into .cache/

Default version: 4.23.0. Override with CAMEL_VERSION.

CAMEL_VERSION=4.8.8 npm run ingest

MCP tools

Register with opencode

"camel-kb": {
  "type": "local",
  "command": ["node", "D:/Proyectos/LM/CamelMCP/dist/server.js"],
  "environment": {
    "CAMEL_KB_DB": "D:/Proyectos/LM/CamelMCP/data/camel-kb.sqlite"
  },
  "enabled": true,
  "timeout": 60000
}

Verification

npm run query -- "send message to sqs"
npm run test:mcp
npm run doctor

Layout

content/concepts/      curated core-concept notes
src/adoc.ts            AsciiDoc to plain text
src/catalog.ts         catalog jar reader and item builder
src/db.ts              SQLite schema and queries
src/render.ts          compact output formatting
src/server.ts          MCP server
scripts/ingest.ts      catalog jar to SQLite
scripts/query.ts       CLI search
scripts/doctor.ts      DB and tool health check
scripts/test-mcp.ts    end-to-end smoke test
data/camel-kb.sqlite   generated index (gitignored)

Troubleshooting

Model tried to call unavailable tool 'error'

This is not a camel-kb failure. It means the model invented a tool name, usually after following stale instructions that referenced the official camel-jbang-mcp tools (camel_route_context, camel_catalog_doc). Those tools are not provided by camel-kb.

• Use camel-kb_search_camel, camel-kb_get_component, camel-kb_get_eip, camel-kb_get_options, and camel-kb_get_doc.

• Runtime route context is not available through this MCP; inspect route sources and configuration directly.

• If you see this again, check the available-tools list and update the agent instructions rather than retrying the invented tool.

Re-ingesting while OpenCode is running

ingest rebuilds the schema in place inside a transaction, so it no longer deletes the SQLite file and does not fail on Windows file locks. Readers continue to use the old schema until the transaction commits. A query that overlaps the commit may see database schema has changed once; the server retries transient SQLITE_BUSY, SQLITE_LOCKED, and SQLITE_SCHEMA errors automatically.

Notes

• The catalog is the source of truth for component and option names. Concept notes are curated and cite official manual pages.

• Some components have JSON metadata but no catalog AsciiDoc. They are indexed as JSON-only and get_component reports that no prose doc is stored.

• Re-run npm run ingest after changing CAMEL_VERSION or the concept notes. Rows are rebuilt, so the previous index is replaced atomically.

• The official camel-jbang-mcp is no longer required. If runtime route inspection is needed later, add it back with a Windows-safe launcher (for example ["cmd", "/c", "jbang", ...]), because plain jbang cannot be spawned directly on Windows.