Kibana and the Dev Tools Console

Build the mental model

Kibana is the official web UI for visualizing and exploring Elasticsearch data, and beyond dashboards and charts it includes a "Dev Tools" console — an interactive editor that lets you run Elasticsearch REST API queries directly from the browser without writing `curl` commands by hand. Dev Tools console syntax is a shorthand for raw HTTP requests ("GET /tutorials/_search") that omits the full host and port (`http://localhost:9200`), and it adds autocomplete, syntax highlighting, and a formatted response view, showing response status and timing immediately. The console is very useful for quickly iterating on queries — trying out mapping ideas, debugging Query DSL — but production application code should never call Dev Tools; it should use the official client library (the Node.js client) instead, since Dev Tools is purely a developer's interactive exploration tool. It's similar to the difference between a database GUI client (like pgAdmin) and the SQL queries inside application code: pgAdmin is great for exploring a schema and debugging, but a production app talks to the database through a driver or ORM.

Connect it to a real scenario

While designing the Tutorial Platform's search feature, try out a new mapping or query idea in Kibana's Dev Tools console before it ever touches production code — run `GET /tutorials/_search` with different tag filters and visually inspect the result shape. Once a query is ready for a production API endpoint, port it into the Node.js client code; the porting step is straightforward because the Dev Tools console syntax maps almost directly onto a Node.js client method call.

Kibana Dev Tools is an interactive REST API console, no curl needed
It offers shorthand syntax, autocomplete, and formatted responses
Production code uses the official client library, not Dev Tools

Try the working example

http

GET /tutorials/_search
{
  "query": {
    "match": { "title": "redis" }
  }
}

GET /_cluster/health

GET /tutorials/_mapping

You should see

You run three queries in Kibana's Dev Tools console and immediately see the formatted JSON responses.

5-minute try-it

Open Kibana's Dev Tools console, view the `tutorials` index mapping with `GET /tutorials/_mapping`, then write a `match` query against the `difficulty` field.

One important caution

Copy-pasting a successful Dev Tools console query verbatim (host/port omitted) into production HTTP client code — the missing full URL causes connection errors.

Manually running production application logic (data transformation, business rules) inside the Dev Tools console instead of a real system workflow — the console is a developer exploration tool, not an automation or repeatable pipeline.

Kibana Guide — Run API Requests — Elastic