netexpert-mcp

"What's on my network, is my link healthy, is this machine safe, and why is X slow?" — answered by an AI, on your LAN, in one conversation.

netexpert is a cross-platform local-network diagnostics & security-posture MCP server for AI clients (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any client that speaks MCP). Windows, Linux, macOS — one normalized JSON envelope, 31 tools, zero config on first run, read-only by default.

It's the local host + LAN half of a home-lab toolkit — the NAS half already exists as ugnas-mcp, and the two compose.

Also listed in the MCP registry as io.github.Omodaka9375/netexpert-mcp.

Install

The package is on npm — no clone, no build:

# run once, on demand (no install)
npx -y netexpert-mcp

# or install globally
npm install -g netexpert-mcp
netexpert-mcp

Wire it into your MCP client (stdio):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "netexpert": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "netexpert-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

That's it — first run needs no config file, no environment variables, nothing. Ask your client "what devices are on my network?" and it has the tools to answer.

Optional HTTP transport (stateless, same JSON-RPC surface):

NETEXPERT_HTTP_PORT=3100 netexpert-mcp
# POST http://127.0.0.1:3100/mcp     (tools/list, tools/call)
# GET  http://127.0.0.1:3100/health  (liveness)

Related MCP server: Pingo

Try it in 30 seconds

Once wired into your client, try:

1. "Am I exposed?" → the client calls sec.exposure — listening ports × firewall state × a risky-port knowledge base, reported as Findings.

2. "What's on my network?" → lan.devices — ARP inventory enriched with IEEE-OUI vendor names and PTR hostnames.

3. "Is my DNS lying to me?" → dns.hijackcheck — known-good domains via your system resolver vs trusted DoH; mismatch ⇒ Finding{severity:high}.

4. "Is my WiFi any good?" → wifi.health — RSSI quality bands, channel overlap, band mismatch — interpreted, with next steps.

Why it exists

Existing network MCP servers are either deprecated Python packages, wrappers that demand Nmap, or router-config tools for enterprises. None of them answer the home-lab questions:

Design guarantees

• One envelope. Every tool returns the same JSON shape (ok, backend, data, warnings / closed-set error.code + actionable hint) — no raw netsh or ip output ever reaches the model.

• Platform-normalized. Same field names on Windows, Linux, and macOS; platform dispatch lives below the service layer.

• Bounded everything. Port caps, host caps, byte caps, timeouts, and token-bucket rate limits are enforced in code — never left to the model's judgment.

• No shell, ever. All subprocesses spawn via arg arrays (execFile-style); all inputs are zod-validated before touching the OS. No raw sockets, no Npcap, no Python.

• Read-only by default. The one mutating tool (lan.wol) uses a dry-run plan + single-use, 10-min-TTL confirmToken — parameters frozen at plan time.

• Capability honesty. Tools report which backend produced the data (backend: "tcp-connect", not a fake "ping"); net.health self-describes what works on this host, with install hints for what doesn't.

• No telemetry. No phone-home — except the three tools that are about the internet (net.publicip, sec.speedtest, DoH in dns.hijackcheck), which you invoked explicitly.

Tool catalog (31)

net.* — connectivity

dns.* — name resolution

lan.* — devices & inventory

wifi.* — link health

sec.* — host posture

Configuration (all optional)

~/.netexpert-mcp/config.json — sane defaults, so zero-config first run:

{
  "defaults":  { "pingCount": 4, "traceMaxHops": 20 },
  "resolvers": { "trusted": ["1.1.1.1", "8.8.8.8"],
                 "dohUrl": "https://cloudflare-dns.com/dns-query" },
  "caps":      { "portscan": { "maxPorts": 256 }, "sweep": { "maxHosts": 1024 } },
  "rate":      { "sweep": 30, "portscan": 10, "speedtest": 60, "httpCheck": 2 },
  "nmap":      { "enabled": false }   // deep scans are opt-in by design
}

Invariants:

• caps are ceilings — tool inputs may go lower, never higher

• env overrides via NETEXPERT_*: NETEXPERT_MCP_CONFIG (config path), NETEXPERT_HTTP_PORT, NETEXPERT_WIFI_IF (linux wlan iface)

• no credentials ever — any config key containing password/token/secret/credential is rejected at load

Optional extras:

• nmap deep scans — install nmap (winget install Insecure.Nmap / sudo apt install nmap), then set "nmap": { "enabled": true } in config. Absence just produces an install hint, never a crash.

• OUI vendor db — ships inside the package; never fetched at runtime.

Monitoring without a daemon

netexpert stays request/response; recurring checks are your MCP client's job:

New-device tripwire   lan.newdevices    every 15 min   fire on Finding[] beyond the info baseline
Gateway reachability  net.ping <gw>    every 60 s      fire on lossPct > 0
DNS integrity         dns.hijackcheck   hourly          fire on sev=high
WiFi degradation      wifi.health       every 10 min    fire on severity ≥ med

AI usage — docs/persona.md

The server provides hands; the persona provides judgment. The rule pack in docs/persona.md gives your AI client:

1. a triage ladder (link → ARP → IP/DNS → port → app — always state which layer exonerated/implicated),

2. baselines for "suspicious" (new MAC with no vendor match, RFC1918 host on 445/3389 that isn't the NAS, resolver ≠ DoH, ARP flapping),

3. the Finding format — every answer ends with the concrete next tool call, never a data dump.

Development

git clone https://github.com/Omodaka9375/netexpert-mcp.git
cd netexpert-mcp
pnpm install

pnpm typecheck     # strict TS (Kai/Claude Code runs this after edits)
pnpm test          # 50 fixture-driven tests (fake runner, zero real network in units)
pnpm build         # → dist/
pnpm smoke         # build → stdio → tools/list → net.health
pnpm smoke:http     # HTTP transport check
node scripts/gen-oui.mjs   # regenerate the OUI db (rarely needed)

Project layout:

src/
  exec/        LocalExecutor (execFile, arg arrays) + per-platform CommandMaps (win32/linux/darwin)
  parse/       pure parsers (arp, ping, traceroute, netsh, iw, nmap -oG) — fixture-tested
  services/    coreService dnsService lanService wifiService secService nmapService
  safety/      caps.ts (bounds + token-bucket rate limiter) · confirm.ts (dry-run/confirmToken)
  data/        oui.json (40k IEEE OUI entries, committed)
  mcp/         toolset.ts (31 tools, zod inputs) · createServer.ts
scripts/       gen-oui.mjs · smoke.mjs · http-smoke.mjs
docs/          persona.md · index.html (the docs page)
tests/         fixtures/ + 50 tests across 6 files

License: MIT — see LICENSE. npm: netexpert-mcp · MCP registry: io.github.Omodaka9375/netexpert-mcp Source & issues: GitHub