MCP server for AWS Elastic Beanstalk: read the fleet; --allow-writes adds two-phase writes.
Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server: io.github.tombaldwin/ebman
This MCP server integrates AWS Elastic Beanstalk and is designed to read the fleet. Its write behavior supports a --allow-writes mode that adds two-phase writes. The server is identified as io.github.tombaldwin/ebman and is associated with the ebman project.
๐ ๏ธ Key Features
AWS Elastic Beanstalk fleet reading
Optional --allow-writes for two-phase writes
Implements terminal UI concepts via k9s, terminal-ui, and tui topics
๐ Use Cases
Querying or inspecting an Elastic Beanstalk fleet through an MCP interface
Performing controlled updates when two-phase writes are enabled
A k9s-style TUI for AWS Elastic Beanstalk. Triage red envs, stream logs, edit option settings, deploy new versions โ all from the keyboard. If you've used k9s with Kubernetes, the muscle memory carries: : for commands, / to filter, Enter to drill in, ? for context-aware help.
Captured from ebman --demo, the synthetic-fleet mode that ships with the binary. Regenerate the gif with vhs demo.tape after a code change.
Install
Homebrew (macOS / Linux):
bash
brew install tombaldwin/tap/ebman
Cargo:
bash
cargo install ebman
Pre-built binary: download the tarball for your platform from the GitHub Releases page, verify the *.sha256 next to it, extract, and put ebman on your PATH.
Tested on Rust 1.94.1+ (the AWS SDK sets the floor). macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel) and Linux x86_64. AWS SDK uses the standard credentials chain (AWS_PROFILE / AWS_REGION env, ~/.aws/credentials, instance role, etc.).
For the prettier glyph set (Powerline pill chain, Nerd Font tab icons), see docs/fonts.md. The default icons = "unicode" works fine in any terminal.
Quickstart
bash
ebman # launch the TUI
ebman --read-only # disable all write surfaces (audit-friendly)
ebman --demo # synthetic fleet (no AWS calls) โ for screenshots / VHS
ebman --version
ebman --help
Once running, press ? for a per-context keymap (Detail, DLQ, Action menu, Saved-configs overlay all have scoped help).
Triage workflow
Production env goes red at 3am. From your terminal:
ebman โ launch; prod-api shows up tinted red in the table
/prod-apiโต โ jump to it
! โ open :why: recent events / alarms / instance health / last deploys, all in one overlay
:diff prod-api staging-api โ confirm staging is still on the previous version
:rollback โ redeploy the last-known-good version label, with a 5-second undo window
Action + outcome land in ~/.cache/ebman/audit.log
Five keystrokes to triage, one command to fix. The AWS-console alternative is a minimum of five page-loads, two tabs, and zero audit trail.
Built for operators who triage EB envs daily and don't want the AWS console round-trip โ or the eb deploy ; aws elasticbeanstalk describe-events --max-items 50 | jq ... shell-pipeline every time something goes red.
Highlights
Live env table with sort / filter / group-by-app / health sparkline / severity tints / mouse support.
Per-env drill-down โ tabs for Health / Events / Instances / Metrics / Queue / Logs / Config.
Red-env triage โ :why opens a one-screen diagnostic: recent events + alarms + instance health + last deploys, with a DLQ peek for Worker envs.
Incident mode โ :incident START "headline" freezes deploys fleet-wide, pins a header banner with a running clock, and audit-logs the window; :event-tail streams EB events across every env in one overlay; ebman audit replay <line-id> re-runs an audited action for post-incident review.
Honest health โ envs with alarms in ALARM, DLQs with messages, or stale platforms surface on the row itself, not behind a tab.
Forensics โ :diff env-A env-B for option-setting deltas, :lineage for the deploy timeline, :alarm-history NAME for CW state transitions, :config-diff-local against a local EB CLI saved config.
Daily-driver writes โ env vars, tags, deploys (label / local zip / S3, with --preview), saved configs, CW alarms CRUD, ALB scheme, instance type, capacity, deployment policy, plus a generic :set-option escape hatch.
SSM โ :ssh i-abc opens an embedded session; :ssm-run "<cmd>" fans a shell command across the env's instances.
Multi-account / multi-region โ :region all parallel queries, :account NAME via sts:AssumeRole, :find-env / :org-health walk every ~/.aws profile + configured account.
Bulk ops โ space multi-selects, then :batch-* fans out in parallel with audit + pending-pill rows.
Safety + audit โ --read-only flag, typed-name confirms, per-env / per-account read-only pins, full audit log at ~/.cache/ebman/audit.log.
Agent-native (MCP) โ ebman mcp serve exposes the read surface (envs, worker queues, why triage bundles, recent logs, lint, drift, option settings, events, versions, cost) as MCP tools, so Claude Code or any MCP client can query your fleet first-class instead of shelling out and re-parsing. Two-phase writes โ deploy / restart / rebuild / terminate / set_option / dlq_resend / dlq_delete / dlq_purge (the tool returns a plan, then confirm_action dispatches) โ are available when your client can put a question to you: every confirmation becomes a dialog naming the action, what it forecloses, and the identity it would use, and nothing dispatches unless the confirmation is approved. (ebman cannot tell you answering from a client that answers for itself โ see docs/safety-and-privacy.md โ so on a headless or scripted client, prefer --read-only or a narrow --allow-writes.) Clients that cannot be asked need --allow-writes, or --allow-writes=dlq_resend,dlq_delete to grant only some; --read-only refuses writes on that server outright. All of it honours the same safety pins, read-only, and cross-process incident freeze the TUI uses, and audits every dispatch and every refusal.
Why ebman?
You probably already have one of these:
Tool
What it's good at
Where it falls short for daily EB triage
AWS Console
Approachable, complete UI surface.
Page loads, eventually-consistent state, 5 tabs to triage one env. Fine for occasional ops, painful at 3am.
eb CLI
A single project's deploy flow (eb deploy, eb logs).
No multi-env view, no live drill-down, no diff between envs, no SQS DLQ workflow.
aws elasticbeanstalk
Raw API access, scriptable.
You build the workflow out of --query / jq pipelines yourself. No live updates, no triage view.
k9s + EKS
The pattern this tool is modelled on.
Doesn't exist for Elastic Beanstalk.
ebman is k9s-for-EB: keyboard-driven, drill-down-first, focused on operators who triage red envs daily and want one screen for "what's wrong" and "what changed". The nearest peer in the broader Rust-TUI / k9s-style space is e1s (k9s-for-ECS); ebman is broader on the write surface and adds multi-account fan-out, an audit log, per-env safety pins, and an embedded SSM-session pane.
Documentation
Keys โ normal mode, detail view tabs, DLQ viewer.
Command reference โ every :command grouped by job (navigation, per-env, write, multi-account, bulk).
Fonts โ installing a Nerd Font for the Powerline glyph set.
Headless interface โ --control-socket + ebman ctl for scripts / CI; the CLI subcommands; shell completion (ebman completions); and the ebman mcp serve MCP server (read tools + confirmation-gated two-phase writes) for Claude Code and other agents โ run ebman mcp setup for the exact registration commands.