Nautobot Source of Truth

Query Nautobot as a network source of truth for IPAM data — retrieve IP addresses with filtering by status, role, VRF, and tenant; look up network prefixes by site and role; search across all IP address data; and verify Nautobot connectivity. This is the Nautobot counterpart to the NetBox netbox-reconcile skill — use this skill when the organization runs Nautobot instead of (or alongside) NetBox.

MCP Server

• Repository: aiopnet/mcp-nautobot
• Transport: stdio (Python via MCP SDK) — also supports HTTP on configurable port
• Requires: NAUTOBOT_URL, NAUTOBOT_TOKEN
• Python: 3.13+
• Read-only: All tools are read-only (requires API token with read permissions)

MCP Tools

Tool	Parameters	What It Does
get_ip_addresses	address?, prefix?, status?, role?, tenant?, vrf?, limit?, offset?	Retrieve IP addresses with filtering — status (active, reserved, deprecated), role (loopback, secondary, anycast), VRF, tenant
get_prefixes	prefix?, status?, site?, role?, tenant?, vrf?, limit?, offset?	Retrieve network prefixes with filtering by site, role, status, VRF, tenant
get_ip_address_by_id	ip_id	Retrieve a specific IP address by its Nautobot UUID
search_ip_addresses	query, limit?	Full-text search across all IP address data — find IPs by any matching field
test_connection	none	Verify connectivity to the Nautobot API — returns status, URL, and timestamp

Tool Details

get_ip_addresses

The primary IPAM query tool. Supports rich filtering:

• address — specific IP to search (e.g., 10.0.1.1)
• prefix — network prefix filter (e.g., 10.0.0.0/24) — returns all IPs within the prefix
• status — active, reserved, deprecated
• role — loopback, secondary, anycast, vip, hsrp, vrrp
• tenant — filter by tenant (multi-tenancy support)
• vrf — filter by VRF (routing instance isolation)
• limit — max results (default: 100, max: 1000)
• offset — pagination offset

Returns JSON with count and IP address objects including assignment details.

get_prefixes

Network prefix (subnet) lookup with site awareness:

• prefix — specific prefix (e.g., 10.0.0.0/24)
• site — filter by site/location name
• role — prefix role (production, development, management, etc.)
• status — active, reserved, deprecated, container
• tenant / vrf — multi-tenancy and routing isolation

Returns JSON with prefix objects including utilization data.

search_ip_addresses

Free-text search across all IP address fields. Use this when you don't know exactly what field to filter on:

• Query by partial IP, hostname, description, or any text in the IP record
• Default limit: 50 (max: 500)

Workflow: IPAM Audit

When auditing IP address allocations:

1. Test connection: test_connection — verify Nautobot API is reachable
2. List prefixes: get_prefixes by site — what subnets are allocated per site
3. IP utilization: get_ip_addresses per prefix — how many IPs are active vs reserved
4. Deprecated check: get_ip_addresses(status="deprecated") — stale allocations
5. Report: IPAM utilization summary by site and prefix

Workflow: IP Address Lookup

When investigating "what device uses IP 10.1.2.3?":

1. Search: search_ip_addresses(query="10.1.2.3") — find the IP
2. Details: get_ip_address_by_id — full details including device assignment
3. Prefix context: get_prefixes(prefix="10.1.2.0/24") — what subnet is it in, which site
4. Report: IP ownership, device assignment, subnet, site, VRF, tenant

Workflow: VRF Reconciliation

When validating VRF IP allocations:

1. Get VRF IPs: get_ip_addresses(vrf="PROD-VRF") — all IPs in the VRF
2. Get VRF prefixes: get_prefixes(vrf="PROD-VRF") — all subnets in the VRF
3. Cross-check: verify IPs fall within expected prefix ranges
4. Overlap detection: compare prefixes across VRFs for unintended overlap
5. Report: VRF allocation summary with any anomalies

Workflow: Site IP Summary

When generating an IP summary for a specific site:

1. Site prefixes: get_prefixes(site="Chicago-DC") — all subnets at the site
2. Per-prefix IPs: get_ip_addresses(prefix="10.10.0.0/16") — IPs in each prefix
3. Loopbacks: get_ip_addresses(role="loopback", status="active") — router loopbacks
4. Report: site IPAM dashboard with prefix utilization, loopback inventory, tenant breakdown

Integration with Other Skills

Skill	How They Work Together
netbox-reconcile	Nautobot and NetBox are alternative SoTs — use whichever the org runs; both provide IPAM data for reconciliation
pyats-topology	Nautobot provides intended state (IP assignments); pyATS discovers actual state from devices
pyats-network	Cross-reference Nautobot IPAM with live device IP configs from pyATS
pyats-routing	Validate routing table entries against Nautobot IPAM allocations
radkit-remote-access	Use Nautobot to identify device IPs, then RADKit to access those devices remotely
aci-fabric-audit	Nautobot IPAM vs ACI endpoint tracker for data center reconciliation
meraki-network-ops	Nautobot subnet allocations vs Meraki DHCP/VLAN assignments
aws-network-ops	Nautobot IPAM vs AWS VPC CIDR allocations for hybrid cloud reconciliation
gait-session-tracking	Record all Nautobot IPAM queries and reconciliation results in GAIT
servicenow-change-workflow	Reference Nautobot IPAM data when planning change requests

Nautobot vs NetBox

Both are popular network source-of-truth platforms. NetClaw supports both:

Feature	NetBox (netbox-reconcile)	Nautobot (nautobot-sot)
Origin	DigitalOcean / NetBox Labs	Network to Code (fork of NetBox)
IPAM	Full IPAM, DCIM, circuits	Full IPAM, DCIM, circuits + Jobs framework
API style	REST + GraphQL	REST + GraphQL + Jobs API
MCP tools	Read-only via FastMCP	Read-only via MCP SDK
Use when	Org uses NetBox	Org uses Nautobot

If the organization runs both, use both skills for cross-platform reconciliation.

Important Rules

• Read-only — all tools are read operations; no writes to Nautobot
• API token scope — ensure the token has read permissions for IPAM endpoints
• Pagination matters — for large datasets, use limit and offset to page through results (max 1000 per request)
• VRF isolation — IP addresses can be duplicated across VRFs; always filter by VRF when the network uses overlapping address space
• Multi-tenancy — filter by tenant for shared Nautobot instances serving multiple organizations
• Record in GAIT — log all Nautobot IPAM queries and reconciliation results

Environment Variables

• NAUTOBOT_URL — Nautobot instance URL (e.g., https://nautobot.example.com)
• NAUTOBOT_TOKEN — Nautobot API token with read permissions
• MCP_PORT — Server port when running in HTTP mode (default: 8000, optional)
• MCP_HOST — Server bind address (default: 127.0.0.1, optional)