MCP Integration

Real-time Camel verification, Citrus test guidance, and knowledge search

Camel-Kit uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to verify Camel configuration, guide Citrus test generation, and search documentation without pre-loading full catalogs into the agent’s context.

Three MCP Servers

Camel MCP — Catalog Verification

On-demand access to Apache Camel component catalogs, EIP patterns, data formats, and languages.

Core tools:

  • camel_catalog_component_doc — component details, URI format, and properties
  • camel_catalog_eip_doc — EIP configuration and YAML structure
  • camel_catalog_dataformat_doc — data format configuration
  • camel_catalog_language_doc — expression language documentation
  • camel_validate_route — YAML route syntax and structure validation
  • camel_configuration_validate — application property validation
Knowledge MCP — Semantic Search

Hybrid semantic search over 28,388 indexed documents — Apache Camel documentation, guides, CVE advisories, and release notes.

5 workflow-allowlisted tools (the server also exposes endpoint validation and index-info tools for direct MCP clients):

  • camel_docs_search — hybrid semantic search (20% BM25 + 80% KNN vector)
  • camel_docs_component_info — component-specific documentation lookup
  • camel_docs_cve_search — CVE and security advisory search
  • camel_docs_release_info — release notes and version information
  • camel_docs_jira_lookup — Jira issue and bug report search

Embedding model: granite-embedding-small-english-r2 (384-dim, Q8 quantized)

Citrus MCP version compatibility

Citrus MCP supplies the action catalog, endpoint catalog, YAML DSL schemas, and test-authoring guidance used by camel-test:

  • citrus_catalog_actions / citrus_catalog_action / citrus_catalog_action_schema
  • citrus_catalog_endpoints / citrus_catalog_endpoint / citrus_catalog_endpoint_schema
  • citrus_docs_index / citrus_docs_page
  • Resources such as citrus://schema/dsl/yaml and citrus://docs/best-practices

Camel-Kit currently uses Citrus Framework 5.0.0-M2 for test schemas and generated dependencies, while the Citrus MCP runner is pinned to working version 5.0.0-M1. Versioned MCP responses are authoritative only when citrus.mcp.version matches citrus.version; otherwise Camel-Kit uses its quick-reference fallback for the configured framework version.

Catalog Tools in Action

camel_catalog_component_doc

Fetch component details — URI format, properties, supported options:

{
  "name": "http",
  "syntax": "http:httpUri",
  "title": "HTTP",
  "properties": {
    "bridgeEndpoint": {
      "type": "boolean",
      "defaultValue": "false"
    },
    "httpMethod": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": ["GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE", "HEAD", "OPTIONS", "TRACE", "PATCH"]
    }
  }
}

Used by skills to verify every component name before it enters a design spec or YAML route.

camel_catalog_eip_doc

Fetch Enterprise Integration Pattern details with YAML examples:

{
  "name": "choice",
  "title": "Choice",
  "description": "Routes messages based on predicates"
}

- choice:
    when:
      - simple: "${header.type} == 'order'"
        steps:
          - to: "direct:process-order"
    otherwise:
      steps:
        - to: "direct:process-other"
camel_validate_route

Validates YAML route syntax, structure, and component references:

- route:
    id: order-api
    from:
      uri: "platform-http:/orders"
      steps:
        - unmarshal:
            json: {}
        - to:
            uri: "jms:queue:orders"

Checks: valid YAML, correct DSL schema, components exist, required properties present.

camel_configuration_validate
After writing application.properties, Camel-Kit submits its non-Forage properties to camel_configuration_validate with the project runtime and full platform BOM. Generation is not complete until the validation passes or the documented manual fallback is recorded.
camel_docs_search

Semantic + keyword search over indexed documentation:

{
  "query": "How do I configure SSL for HTTP endpoints?",
  "max_results": 5
}

Algorithm: 20% BM25 (exact keyword matching) + 80% KNN Vector (semantic similarity).

Returns ranked chunks from component docs, guides, and CVE advisories.

camel_docs_component_info

Pure BM25 search for exact component names — no semantic embedding.

Why separate? Component names are exact matches. Semantic similarity doesn’t help (activemq might match kafka semantically but they’re different components).

{ "component": "kafka" }

/camel-knowledge

The /camel-knowledge skill is a prescriptive Q&A interface over Knowledge MCP:

User: "How do I enable retries on the Kafka component?"

Agent:
1. Calls camel_docs_search(query="Kafka retries", max_results=5)
2. Receives relevant chunks
3. Synthesizes answer with source citations
Question Routing

The skill routes questions to the appropriate tool:

  • Component config → camel_docs_component_info + camel_catalog_component_doc
  • Error troubleshooting → camel_docs_search (includes CVE advisories)
  • Best practices → camel_docs_search (includes best practice guides)
Cross-Agent Equalization

The same MCP catalog is exposed through target-specific configuration, filtering, and visibility controls:

User question → camel_docs_search() → ranked chunks → answer

Supported targets query the same Knowledge MCP data through target-native workflows (or Pi’s adapter). Orchestration and visible tool surfaces differ by target.

Next Steps