mcp-oxidized

MCP server exposing Oxidized network configuration backups to AI assistants with actionable error messages.

mcp-oxidized is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that connects AI assistants (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Zed, Windsurf) to your Oxidized network device configuration backup system.

Key Differentiator: When something goes wrong, you get structured error messages that LLMs can understand and act upon - not cryptic stack traces.

Quick Start

Get up and running in less than 5 minutes:

1. Prerequisites

Oxidized 0.35.0+ with oxidized-web 0.18.0+ running and accessible
An MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Zed, Windsurf)

Note: The REST API is provided by oxidized-web, a separate Ruby gem from Oxidized itself.

2. Installation

Option A: Download binary (recommended)

Download the latest binary for your platform from Releases.

Option B: Build from source

cargo install mcp-oxidized
# or
git clone https://github.com/fxthiry/mcp-oxidized.git
cd mcp-oxidized
cargo build --release

3. Configuration

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "oxidized": {
      "command": "/path/to/mcp-oxidized",
      "env": {
        "OXIDIZED_URL": "http://your-oxidized-server:8888",
        "OXIDIZED_USER": "admin",
        "OXIDIZED_PASSWORD": "your-password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Zero-config mode: If no env vars are set, defaults to http://localhost:8888 with no authentication.

For more configuration options, see docs/configuration.md.

Tools

Tool	Parameters	Description
`fetch_node_config`	`node`	Trigger immediate backup of a node's configuration
`prioritize_node`	`node`	Move a node to the front of the backup queue
`reload_sources`	(none)	Reload Oxidized source inventory (new devices become available)
`diff_configs`	`node`, `version1`, `version2`	Compare two configuration versions using Myers/LCS algorithm
`search_configs`	`pattern`, `nodes?`, `case_sensitive?`, `limit?`	Search regex patterns across all device configurations

Resources

Resource URI	Description
`oxidized://nodes`	List all nodes with pagination (`offset`, `limit`, `group`)
`oxidized://node/{name}`	Node details (model, status, last backup time)
`oxidized://node/{name}/config`	Current configuration (with `truncate`, `summary` options for large configs)
`oxidized://node/{name}/versions`	Configuration version history
`oxidized://node/{name}/versions/{oid}`	Specific historical version content
`oxidized://stats`	Global backup statistics

Actionable Errors

When something goes wrong, mcp-oxidized provides structured error messages optimized for AI assistants:

[Error] Node 'SW-Unknown' not found.
[Context] Search performed in Oxidized inventory.
[Suggestions] Similar nodes: SW-Core-01, SW-Access-02.
[Next Step] Use 'oxidized://nodes' to list all available nodes.

This format helps LLMs understand what went wrong and suggest corrections automatically.

Example Usage

Ask your AI assistant:

"List all network devices in Oxidized"
"Show me the configuration of router-core-01"
"Compare the last two versions of switch-access-02"
"Find all devices with SNMP community 'public' configured"
"Trigger a backup of firewall-edge-01 now"

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, testing, and PR guidelines.

Documentation

Tools Reference - Detailed tool documentation with examples
Resources Reference - Resource URI patterns and response formats
Configuration Guide - All environment variables and options
Troubleshooting - Common errors and solutions

License

Apache License 2.0 - see LICENSE for details.

mcp-oxidized 1.0.0