ONOS MCP server for AI agents

The ONOS MCP Server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that allows AI assistants to interact with ONOS SDN controllers. It provides a structured API interface for network control and management capabilities, enabling access to network resources, analytics tools, and specialized network management functions.

Installation Requirements

Before installing the ONOS MCP Server, ensure you have:

Python 3.7 or higher
A running ONOS controller
uv package manager

Setting Up the Server

Clone the repository and navigate to the server directory
Install dependencies using uv:
```
uv pip install httpx mcp
```

Configure the server using environment variables:

export ONOS_API_BASE="http://localhost:8181/onos/v1"
export ONOS_USERNAME="onos"
export ONOS_PASSWORD="rocks"

Server Configuration

The server can be configured with the following environment variables:

Variable	Description	Default Value
`ONOS_API_BASE`	Base URL for ONOS API	http://localhost:8181/onos/v1
`ONOS_USERNAME`	Username for ONOS API authentication	onos
`ONOS_PASSWORD`	Password for ONOS API authentication	rocks

Using with Claude Desktop

To configure the ONOS MCP Server with Claude Desktop, add the following configuration to your Claude Desktop settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "onos": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "parent_of_servers_repo/servers/src/onos-mcp-server",
        "run",
        "server.py"
      ],
      "env": {
        "ONOS_API_BASE": "http://localhost:8181/onos/v1",
        "ONOS_USERNAME": "onos",
        "ONOS_PASSWORD": "rocks"
      }
    }
  }
}

Remember to adjust the directory path to match your actual installation location.

Available Features

Network Resources

The server provides access to various ONOS REST API endpoints:

Network devices, links, and hosts
Topology information
Flow rules and intents
Applications and services
Statistics and metrics
System and cluster health

Analytics Capabilities

The MCP server offers several network analytics tools:

Network Summary: View comprehensive overviews of devices, links, hosts, and clusters
Network Analytics: Examine performance metrics, traffic patterns, and utilization statistics
System Health: Monitor memory usage, cluster status, and component health
Application Management: Install, activate, deactivate, and uninstall ONOS applications
Flow Configuration: Create and manage flow rules and intents
Path Computation: Find optimal paths between network endpoints

Specialized Network Functions

The server supports specialized network management tasks:

Network diagnostics for troubleshooting connectivity issues
Intent-based configuration for implementing policies
Network health analysis with comprehensive status reports
QoS configuration for traffic prioritization
Performance optimization for resource allocation

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 "onos" '{"command":"uv","args":["--directory","parent_of_servers_repo/servers/src/onos-mcp-server","run","server.py"],"env":{"ONOS_API_BASE":"http://localhost:8181/onos/v1","ONOS_USERNAME":"onos","ONOS_PASSWORD":"rocks"}}'

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": {
        "onos": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "parent_of_servers_repo/servers/src/onos-mcp-server",
                "run",
                "server.py"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ONOS_API_BASE": "http://localhost:8181/onos/v1",
                "ONOS_USERNAME": "onos",
                "ONOS_PASSWORD": "rocks"
            }
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "onos": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "parent_of_servers_repo/servers/src/onos-mcp-server",
                "run",
                "server.py"
            ],
            "env": {
                "ONOS_API_BASE": "http://localhost:8181/onos/v1",
                "ONOS_USERNAME": "onos",
                "ONOS_PASSWORD": "rocks"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect