netops

Tools that give an AI agent the narrowest possible hands and usable eyes on network devices, and a configuration auditor that is useful without any agent at all. Four components live in this one repository; each is released on its own, under its own tag and its own maturity.

Start here

Try the auditor in one minute

No device, no credentials, no database. The auditor reads a sample FortiGate configuration that ships with its tests:

git clone https://github.com/radek-cerny-soukr/netops
cd netops/components/netops-auditor
PYTHONPATH=src:../netops-core/src python3 -m netops_auditor run \
  --platform fortios --tenant demo --device fw1 \
  --config tests/fixtures/secret_canary.conf

It reports nine findings, two of them high: administrative access on a WAN interface and a policy that references an object which does not exist. Each finding names the rule, the object and the line, and never quotes the configuration. The sample carries twenty marked fake secrets; none of them reaches the report, in text, with --json or with --sarif. Twelve of the FortiOS rules are hardening checks mapped to the CIS FortiGate 7.4.x Benchmark; the CIS mapping says what each one checks and which recommendations no rule covers.

On your own device, save the output of show on a FortiGate (or show configuration on an ExtremeXOS switch, with --platform exos) to a file and pass it with --config. To track change over time, add --store audit.db; accept the current findings once with --baseline-accept --accepted-by <name> --note <text>, and later runs report them as open-known and anything that appears as new. Without the repository, download the netops-auditor and netops-core source archives from their release pages (linked under Components), verify them as described in Verifying a release, and install both into one Python 3.13 environment; that puts the same command on the path as netops-auditor. The rule catalogue, suppressions with expiry, collection straight from the device and the read-only MCP surface are described in the auditor README.

Audit configuration backups in CI

If your configuration backups live in a Git repository, the auditor runs as a GitHub Action with no device, credential or network access and uploads its findings to code scanning as SARIF:

- id: audit
  uses: radek-cerny-soukr/netops/components/netops-auditor@d5a192961578d9588de90a5d963494f6adff51a4 # netops-auditor 0.2.10
  with:
    platform: fortios
    configs: |
      backups/**/*.conf
- uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@2892aa5e19bbd11bc0cff5427e3b750a04d9e3c2 # v4.38.2
  with:
    sarif_file: ${{ steps.audit.outputs.sarif-file }}

The workflow needs security-events: write. Inputs, outputs and the SARIF mapping are in the auditor README.

An agent with bounded reads and diagnostics

netops-helper is an MCP server with a fixed catalogue of named queries, optional measured FortiOS configuration-path reads and separately enrolled bounded diagnostic recipes. The agent chooses a query and its parameters; it supplies no raw command line or persistent configuration-write tool. Optional recipes can change temporary diagnostic state and must verify cleanup. The server runs in an isolated container on a runner host that the client reaches over pinned SSH, host-side egress rules are applied before the container starts, and every device is reached with an account the device itself keeps read-only. Setup is nine steps: installation.

An agent that can change a little, and undo it

netops-admin changes one object of a supported table per request. Before writing it arms a rollback on the device itself (a FortiOS automation stitch or an ExtremeXOS Universal Port Manager timer), then compares the result with its prediction through a separate check account, and disarms the rollback only when everything matches. If the check cannot be completed, the timer on the device restores the previous state on its own. Six single-object profiles cover FortiOS addresses, address groups and DHCP reservations and EXOS VLANs, port display strings and membership. Admin 0.2.6 also supports up to 32-operation FortiOS schema transactions, only with exact operator-pinned libraries and rollback calibration. Two read-only commands help before the first change: netops-admin doctor reports every condition a device still lacks, and netops-admin preview shows the plan of a request and every reason it would be refused, without changing anything. Start here.

Related MCP server: SSH MCP Server

Components

Every release carries a source archive, an SBOM, a checksum manifest and a Sigstore signature; install from those assets after verifying them. The release page is authoritative. PyPI is a delayed, secondary channel: publication is a separate workflow after GitHub and does not install the Helper server; check exact-version availability before using the index. On 1 October 2026 PyPI carries netops-core 0.2.4, netops-auditor 0.2.7 and netops-admin 0.2.2; Helper was absent on that date. Earlier versions keep their release pages and tags; the table above links the current one. How releases are cut and signed, and what the repository gate enforces, is in the documentation map.

What has been tested

Every entry below is a dated run of this code against a device over the network. "Image" means the vendor's virtual appliance in a lab; hardware is named as such. The table retains dated September measurements; current additions from 3–4 October are summarized below. The per-query and per-scenario detail, including every refusal and failure, is in verified platform support and live lab measurements.

New candidate validation, 3–4 October 2026

• FortiGate-VM64-KVM 7.6.7 build3704 and 8.0.0 build0167: exact-bound schema reads, nested/conditional/reference measurements, scoped Auditor reports, the first calibrated Admin schema wave and five bounded Helper recipes with interruption and cleanup checks.

• EXOS-VM and retained ExtremeXOS evidence: command-tree validation and default-port fixes. Changed save/confirmation paths retain their individual measured and synthetic boundaries.

• vJunos-switch 26.2R1.7/cEOS: LACP/MSTP scenarios; actual Helper/Core Junos reads during OSPF/eBGP state and route failure/recovery against FRR 11. These runs do not measure a physical forwarding plane, preferred BGP forwarding or every convergence condition.

See current candidate validation and GitHub issue resolution.

Current gaps: full signed-installation/runtime qualification on macOS and Linux amd64 for these candidates; physical 60F/FortiSwitch/FortiAP schema/recipe validation; physical Arista, Juniper or Cisco platforms; NX-OS 10.x; Junos routing hardware; AAA/TACACS+ command authorization; failed-save behavior on EXOS hardware and complete forwarding/convergence coverage. Unmeasured FortiOS neighbor references and the SLA health-check key remain unknown. VM libraries grant no physical-model write support. Earlier hardware measurements remain historical evidence for their named versions.

Security

Read SECURITY.md before deploying anything from here, and the security model of the component you are deploying. Report a vulnerability privately through GitHub Security Advisories; never include live credentials, addresses, configurations, or command output.

MIT licensed.