tplinkcli

next time imma flash my own openwrt so i dont have to do this shit

A CLI + MCP tool for TP-Link Archer/AX routers, so you can manage the router from the terminal instead of the web UI. Reverse-engineered from the site's JS.

Install

With uv, install it as a global tool - puts tplink and tplink-mcp on your PATH:

uv tool install '.[mcp]'          # from a local checkout
# uv tool install 'tplinkcli[mcp]'  # once published to PyPI

Then put your credentials in ~/.config/tplink/.env:

ROUTER_IP=192.168.0.1
ROUTER_USERNAME=admin
ROUTER_PASSWORD=your-router-password

Credentials are also read from environment variables, a project-local .env, or a file pointed to by $TPLINK_ENV (precedence, low → high: user config → project .env → $TPLINK_ENV → env vars → --host/--password flags).

CLI

The router only allows one admin session at a time, so each tplink <command> logs in, runs, and logs out, releasing the session for the web UI. For several commands in a row, use the interactive session instead:

tplink                   # interactive session:
tplink> clients
tplink> raw status?form=internet --op read   # no quoting needed in here
tplink> exit           # logs out

One-shot commands:

tplink clients          # connected devices with IP + MAC
tplink status           # mode, WAN IP, uptime, CPU/mem, SSIDs
tplink wifi             # SSID + on/off per band (passwords hidden; --reveal-secrets)
tplink stats            # per-client wireless signal (dBm), PHY rate, band
tplink ports            # physical ethernet port link status
tplink dhcp             # DHCP leases
tplink watch clients|leases  # live poll: print join/leave/IP-change diffs (Ctrl-C to stop)
tplink dhcp-config      # DHCP server pool / lease time / DNS
tplink reservations     # DHCP address reservations
tplink syslog --level ERROR --limit 50   # system log (DHCP/SAE/DFS events)
tplink radio 5g         # radio settings for a band (channel, width, security)
tplink wifi-adv 5g      # advanced: WMM, beacon/DTIM/RTS, tx power, OFDMA, TWT, band steering
tplink firmware         # firmware/hardware version + cloud update check
tplink wan              # WAN/internet status (JSON)
tplink ipv6             # IPv6 WAN + LAN status
tplink session          # session age / login count
tplink dump -o snap.json # full-state snapshot (config-drift diffing)
tplink reboot           # reboot (asks to confirm; --yes to skip)

tplink raw 'status?form=client_status' --op load --json  # call any endpoint directly

Quote the raw path in your shell (the ? is a glob) — not needed inside the interactive session. Add --json to most commands for machine-readable output.

MCP server

Exposes the router to an AI agent — 24 tools including get_syslog, get_client_stats, get_dhcp_settings/set_dhcp_settings, list_reservations/add_reservation, get_wifi_radio/set_wifi_channel/set_wifi_security, get_wps/set_wps, get_guest_network/set_guest_network, session_info, list_endpoints, and raw_request. Wi-Fi passwords are redacted by default (reveal_secrets=true to opt in); radio-restarting writes require confirm=true.

tplink-mcp

Example Claude Code config (credentials via ~/.config/tplink/.env or inline env):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tplink": {
      "command": "tplink-mcp",
      "env": { "ROUTER_IP": "192.168.0.1", "ROUTER_PASSWORD": "..." }
    }
  }
}

Development

Work on the code from a checkout without installing globally:

uv sync --extra mcp    # dev tools (pytest) are in the default dependency group
uv run pytest -q       # crypto tests run offline (synthetic vectors only)
uv run tplink status   # run against the router without a global install

uv tool install --force '.[mcp]'   # reinstall the global tool after changes