Cisco ISE MCP server for AI agents

Cisco ISE MCP Server is a specialized server that allows interaction with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) APIs through the standardized Model Context Protocol (MCP). It dynamically generates tools based on ISE API endpoints, enabling structured discovery and interaction with ISE features through any MCP-compatible client.

Installation

Requirements

Python 3.9 or higher
Required packages from requirements.txt

pip install -r requirements.txt

Or with uv:

uv pip install -r requirements.txt

Configuration

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root with your Cisco ISE credentials:

ISE_BASE="https://your-ise-instance.example.com"
USERNAME="your-ise-api-username"
PASSWORD="your-ise-api-password"
# Optional: Controls SSL certificate verification
# Default is true. Set to "false" to disable (insecure)
ISE_VERIFY_SSL="true"

URL Configuration

Ensure src/ise_mcp_server/urls.json is properly structured to define the ISE API endpoints:

[
  {
    "URL": "/ers/config/endpoint",
    "Name": "Endpoints",
    "FilterableFields": ["mac", "name", "description", "identityGroupName"]
  },
  {
    "URL": "/ers/config/identitygroup",
    "Name": "Identity Groups",
    "FilterableFields": ["name", "description"]
  }
]

Running the Server

With Docker (for Claude Desktop)

Build the Docker image:

docker build -t ise-mcp:latest .

Configure Claude Desktop by adding to your MCP server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ISE_MCP": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "--env-file=/Users/username/mcp_servers/ISE_MCP/.env",
        "ise-mcp:latest"
      ],
      "cwd": "/Users/username/mcp_servers/ISE_MCP"
    }
  }
}

Running Locally

Navigate to the project root and run:

python src/ise_mcp_server/server.py

This starts the server with streamable-http transport at http://127.0.0.1:8000/mcp by default.

Development Testing

For local development with MCP Inspector:

python -m fastmcp dev src/ise_mcp_server/server.py --with httpx --with pydantic --with python-dotenv

Alternative: Running with uv and fastmcp

If you have uv and fastmcp installed:

uv --directory /path/to/project run fastmcp run src/ise_mcp_server/server.py --transport stdio

Using the Server

Tool Discovery

All tools are automatically generated from the entries in urls.json. Tool names are derived from the Name field (e.g., "Identity Groups" becomes identity_groups).

Calling Tools

Tools accept a single optional argument, params, which follows the structure:

{
  "params": {
    "filter_expression": "name.CONTAINS.mydevice",
    "query_params": {
      "size": 10,
      "page": 1
    }
  }
}

filter_expression: Optional string in format fieldName.OPERATION.value (e.g., mac.EQUALS.AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF)
query_params: Optional dictionary of additional query parameters to pass to the ISE API

Example Configuration for MCP Server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ise": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": [
        "ise_mcp_server.py",
        "--oneshot"
      ],
      "env": {
        "ISE_BASE": "https://devnetsandboxise.cisco.com",
        "USERNAME": "readonly",
        "PASSWORD": "ISEisC00L"
      }
    }
  }
}

Each tool provides detailed docstrings explaining its purpose, the ISE API endpoint it targets, and available filtering options. Consult these docstrings for endpoint-specific information.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "ise" '{"command":"python","args":["ise_mcp_server.py","--oneshot"],"env":{"ISE_BASE":"https://devnetsandboxise.cisco.com","USERNAME":"readonly","PASSWORD":"ISEisC00L"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "ise": {
            "command": "python",
            "args": [
                "ise_mcp_server.py",
                "--oneshot"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ISE_BASE": "https://devnetsandboxise.cisco.com",
                "USERNAME": "readonly",
                "PASSWORD": "ISEisC00L"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "ise": {
            "command": "python",
            "args": [
                "ise_mcp_server.py",
                "--oneshot"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ISE_BASE": "https://devnetsandboxise.cisco.com",
                "USERNAME": "readonly",
                "PASSWORD": "ISEisC00L"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect