MCP server for interacting with network devices (switches, routers, firewalls) over SSH. Supports Arista EOS, Cisco NX-OS, Cisco IOS/IOS-XE, Juniper
Netdev Ssh MCP MCP server exists for a simple reason — assistants are far more useful when they can act on Netdev Ssh MCP directly instead of describing what you should do. MCP server for interacting with network devices (switches, routers, firewalls) over SSH. Supports Arista EOS, Cisco NX-OS, Cisco IOS/IOS-XE, Juniper JunOS, and FortiGate FortiOS. Exposes network device operations as tools for use with.
Once Netdev Ssh MCP is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:
get_config — Retrieves the running or startup configuration from an Arista, Cisco Nexus, Cisco Catalyst, Juniper JunOS, or FortiGate FortiOS device. Sensitiverun_show_command — Runs operational read commands on a network device and returns the output. For Arista/Cisco/JunOS, the command must start with show. For FortiOS, therun_ping — Runs a ping command on network device and returns the output. Useful for verifying reachability from the device's perspective — for example, testingrun_traceroute — Shows the hop-by-hop path from the device to a destination and per-hop latency. Useful for locating where connectivity breaks, verifying traffictrust_host_key — Fetches the SSH host key currently presented by a device and optionally adds it to the configured known_hosts file. Use it in two steps:Setup follows the usual MCP pattern — install or clone the server, register it in your client's configuration file, restart the client. The configuration blocks on this page cover the common clients.
You will need 3 environment variables: DEVICE_USERNAME, DEVICE_PASSWORD, SSH_AUTH_SOCK. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.
Plenty of developer tooling servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. Netdev Ssh MCP's toolset — get_config, run_show_command, run_ping and 2 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by krisiasty; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
We check each listing at SyncDev against the project's documentation before it goes live — if something here drifts out of date, it is a bug worth reporting.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| get_config | Retrieves the running or startup configuration from an Arista, Cisco Nexus, Cisco Catalyst, Juniper JunOS, or FortiGate FortiOS device. Sensitive values (passwords, secrets, SNMP community names, BGP/OSPF/TACACS/RADIUS/I |
| run_show_command | Runs operational read commands on a network device and returns the output. For Arista/Cisco/JunOS, the command must start with show. For FortiOS, the command must start with get. Append | json for structured output where |
| run_ping | Runs a ping command on network device and returns the output. Useful for verifying reachability from the device's perspective — for example, testing connectivity to a BGP peer, next-hop, or management target. |
| run_traceroute | Shows the hop-by-hop path from the device to a destination and per-hop latency. Useful for locating where connectivity breaks, verifying traffic follows the expected path, and identifying which hop introduces latency. |
| trust_host_key | Fetches the SSH host key currently presented by a device and optionally adds it to the configured known_hosts file. Use it in two steps: |
With a default username:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"netdev-ssh-mcp": {
"command": "<path-to-binary>",
"env": {
"DEVICE_USERNAME": "admin"
}
}
}
}Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| DEVICE_USERNAME | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
| DEVICE_PASSWORD | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
| SSH_AUTH_SOCK | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
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