Nautobot MCP

This Nautobot app integrates the MCP (Model Context Protocol) server with Nautobot, providing AI-ready tools and interfaces for network automation and management.

Overview

Nautobot MCP enables AI assistants or applications to interact with your network data through a standardized protocol. The app runs an MCP server alongside Nautobot that exposes tools which can be used by AI systems.

https://modelcontextprotocol.io/introduction

Demo using Librechat - Connected to Nautobot MCP

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/283d68c2-d35f-4506-b909-45c1850e7281

Installation

1. Install the package

pip install nautobot-mcp

2. Add to INSTALLED_APPS in your Nautobot configuration

# In your nautobot_config.py
PLUGINS = [
    "nautobot_mcp",
    # ... other plugins
]

3. Configuration

Configure the app through Nautobot's configuration system:

# In your nautobot_config.py
PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "nautobot_mcp": {
        "MCP_PORT": 8005,  # MCP server port
        "MCP_HOST": "0.0.0.0",  # Default is 0.0.0.0
        "MCP_CUSTOM_TOOLS_DIR": "/path/to/your/custom/tools",  # Directory for custom tools
        "MCP_LOAD_CORE_TOOLS": False,  # Load built-in tools
    },
}

4. Run nautobot post upgrade

nautobot-server post_upgrade

Custom Tools

You can create your own custom tools by defining Python functions in the directory specified in MCP_CUSTOM_TOOLS_DIR.

Example custom tool:

# In /path/to/your/custom/tools/my_tools.py

def some_tool(param1: str, param2: str) -> dict:
    """Some tool description"""
    # Your implementation here
    return {"result": f"Tool result for {param1} and {param2}"}

The MCP server will automatically discover and register all function-based tools in the specified directory.

Deployment Options

Method 1: Manual Start

You can start the MCP server manually:

nautobot-server start_mcp_server

Method 2: Systemd Service (Recommended for Production)

Create a systemd service file at /etc/systemd/system/nautobot-mcp.service:

[Unit]
Description=Nautobot MCP Server
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
User=nautobot
Group=nautobot
WorkingDirectory=/opt/nautobot
ExecStart=/opt/nautobot/venv/bin/nautobot-server start_mcp_server
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=30
PrivateTmp=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now nautobot-mcp.service

Viewing Available Tools

You can view all registered tools in the Nautobot web interface at:

https://your-nautobot-server/plugins/nautobot-mcp/tools/

This page shows all available tools, their descriptions, module paths, and parameter specifications.

TODO

• [ ] Add a way to route tool execution to a specific Nautobot worker.
• [ ] Enhance the tool view in the Nautobot web interface to show tool usage statistics.
• [ ] Create a docker container to run the MCP server.
• [ ] Add tests.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.