---

name: inspection-and-server description: "Inspect Kedro projects with read-only snapshots and troubleshoot the optional HTTP server API without confusing inspection with execution." disable-model-invocation: true metadata: disco-role: operating license: Apache 2.0

Inspection and Server

Use this sub-skill when a task is about reading Kedro project structure without running the pipeline, using kedro.inspection.get_project_snapshot, interpreting snapshot dataclasses, calling the optional HTTP /snapshot API, or troubleshooting kedro server start dependency/startup failures.

Route Here

• Produce a read-only summary of project metadata, registered pipelines, nodes, datasets, and parameter keys.
• Use from kedro.inspection import get_project_snapshot with project_path, env, conf_source, or precomputed metadata.
• Interpret ProjectSnapshot, ProjectMetadataSnapshot, PipelineSnapshot, NodeSnapshot, and DatasetSnapshot fields.
• Use GET /health or GET /snapshot from the optional FastAPI server, or diagnose create_http_server() and kedro server start setup.
• Explain server request/response schemas, strict validation, runner allowlisting, session reuse, and read-only versus run-capable endpoints.

Route Elsewhere

• Project creation, project detection, global/project CLI command availability, bootstrap_project(), KedroSession.create(), or telemetry-safe CLI probing: read project CLI and sessions.
• Actual pipeline execution through kedro run, KedroSession.run(), runner choice, slicing, load versions, or only-missing-output behavior: read runners and execution.
• Pipeline graph authoring, node(), Pipeline, namespacing, tags, or pipeline registry design: read pipelines and nodes.
• Catalog YAML, credentials, dataset factories, OmegaConfigLoader, parameters, or config validation: read data catalog and config.
• Custom hooks, plugins, custom server routes, middleware, deployment wrappers, or serving customization: read hooks and extensions.
• Package-wide install/import checks and top-level routing: read the Kedro root skill.

Current Facts

• Kedro version target: 1.4.0; distribution and import name: kedro; Python requirement: >=3.10.
• Public inspection entry point: kedro.inspection.get_project_snapshot(project_path=None, env=None, conf_source=None, metadata=None).
• Inspection snapshots are read-only: they bootstrap/load project metadata, pipeline definitions, catalog configuration, and parameter keys, but do not load datasets, execute nodes, or write outputs.
• Snapshot dataclasses are ProjectSnapshot, ProjectMetadataSnapshot, PipelineSnapshot, NodeSnapshot, and DatasetSnapshot from kedro.inspection.models.
• Optional server entry point: from kedro.server import create_http_server; CLI command: kedro server start from inside a Kedro project.
• The server optional extra installs fastapi and uvicorn and depends on Kedro's pydantic extra; missing optional packages are expected if only base Kedro is installed.
• Server endpoints include GET /health, GET /snapshot, and POST /run; only /snapshot is read-only, while /run executes project code.

Reference Map

• Read inspection API for get_project_snapshot() usage, snapshot fields, environment/config-source handling, redaction behavior, and safe read-only summary patterns.
• Read server API for optional dependency installation, kedro server start, create_http_server(), endpoint schemas, session reuse, runner allowlisting, and security boundaries.
• Read troubleshooting when imports fail, optional dependencies are missing, project paths or environments are invalid, snapshots return empty or failed sections, server startup fails, or /run is accidentally used for inspection.

Fast Patterns

• Inspect from Python without running nodes:

  from kedro.inspection import get_project_snapshot
  
  snapshot = get_project_snapshot(project_path=".", env="local")
  print(snapshot.metadata.project_name)
  print([pipeline.name for pipeline in snapshot.pipelines])
  

• Reuse project bootstrap metadata for repeated snapshots:

  from kedro.framework.startup import bootstrap_project
  from kedro.inspection import get_project_snapshot
  
  metadata = bootstrap_project(".")
  local_snapshot = get_project_snapshot(metadata=metadata)
  staging_snapshot = get_project_snapshot(metadata=metadata, env="staging")
  

• Use a telemetry-safe optional server check only when the server extra is installed and a short-lived local service is acceptable: KEDRO_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 kedro server start --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000.

• Prefer GET /snapshot for HTTP inspection; avoid POST /run unless the user explicitly wants execution and has accepted dataset/code side effects.

Safety Notes

• Snapshot APIs can import project code and read configuration files, so treat them as read-only introspection rather than a no-import static parser.
• Dataset file paths in DatasetSnapshot.filepath may reveal storage layout; URI credentials embedded as scheme://user:password@host are redacted, but do not print arbitrary config values or secrets.
• kedro server start starts a long-running local service and may execute pipeline code through /run; do not expose it publicly without authentication, authorization, request isolation, and network controls.
• Use KEDRO_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 or DO_NOT_TRACK=1 for automated CLI probes when telemetry must be disabled.