unifi-rmcp

MCP server and CLI for UniFi Network controllers: clients, devices, WLANs, firewall, and health over stdio or streamable HTTP, with auth.

It exposes one MCP tool, unifi, plus the runifi CLI. Agents can inspect clients, devices, WiFi networks, health, alarms, events, controller sysinfo, and authenticated identity, and can use generated official_* / unifi_* actions when their MCP auth scope permits it.

30-second path: set UNIFI_URL and UNIFI_API_KEY, then run npx -y @dinglebear/runifi health --json -> start loopback HTTP with UNIFI_MCP_HOST=127.0.0.1 npx -y @dinglebear/runifi serve -> call tools/call with {"action":"health"}.

Status: operational RMCP upstream-client server. The preserved convenience actions are read-oriented; generated mutating actions require unifi:admin authorization. HTTP MCP supports loopback dev mode, static bearer tokens, and Google OAuth through lab-auth.

Not for: replacing the UniFi console, storing controller credentials for callers, bypassing UniFi permissions, generic HTTP proxying, multi-tenant isolation, or passing UniFi API keys through MCP tool arguments.

Contents

• Naming
• Capabilities And Boundaries
• Install
• Quickstart
• Client Configuration
• Runtime Surfaces
• MCP Tool Reference
• CLI Reference
• Configuration
• Authentication
• Safety And Trust Model
• Architecture
• Distribution Contract
• Development
• Verification
• Deployment
• Troubleshooting
• Related Servers
• Documentation
• License

Naming

The repo and npm package use the RMCP family name, while the shipped binary uses the short Rust CLI name runifi.

Capabilities And Boundaries

• Read connected wireless and wired clients, network devices, WLAN configs, site health, active alarms, recent events, controller sysinfo, and current authenticated user.
• Dispatch generated official_* actions for documented Network Integration API endpoints.
• Dispatch model-backed unifi_* internal controller actions and hybrid aliases such as list_clients, list_devices, list_networks, list_wifi, and get_system_info.
• Enforce unifi:read for read actions and unifi:admin for mutating actions in mounted HTTP MCP mode.
• Provide setup, doctor, and endpoint-verification commands for local runtime checks.

Install

npm / npx

Run the stdio MCP server or CLI without a manual binary install:

npx -y @dinglebear/runifi --help
npx -y @dinglebear/runifi mcp
npx -y @dinglebear/runifi health --json

The npm package downloads runifi during postinstall. Override download behavior only when testing packaging:

Build From Source

git clone git@github.com:dinglebear-ai/runifi.git
cd runifi
cargo build --release
./target/release/runifi --help

Minimum supported Rust version: 1.86. The Cargo workspace has three members: the root unifi-rmcp package, crates/unifi (reusable core), and xtask (dev tooling). All members inherit Rust edition 2024 and MSRV 1.97.1 from the workspace root.

Quickstart

1. Create A UniFi API Key

In UniFi OS, go to Settings -> Admins & Users -> API Keys, create a key, and copy it into UNIFI_API_KEY.

2. Configure The Controller

export UNIFI_URL=https://unifi.local
export UNIFI_API_KEY=...
export UNIFI_SITE=default
export UNIFI_SKIP_TLS_VERIFY=true

Set UNIFI_LEGACY=true only for older non-UDM controllers that do not use the /proxy/network path prefix.

3. Run A Safe CLI Call

npx -y @dinglebear/runifi health --json

4. Start Loopback HTTP MCP

UNIFI_MCP_HOST=127.0.0.1 npx -y @dinglebear/runifi serve

In another shell:

curl -sf http://127.0.0.1:40030/health

5. Make A First MCP Call

curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:40030/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"unifi","arguments":{"action":"health"}}}'

Client Configuration

Claude Code Stdio

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "unifi": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "unifi-rmcp", "mcp"],
      "env": {
        "UNIFI_URL": "https://unifi.local",
        "UNIFI_API_KEY": "...",
        "UNIFI_SITE": "default",
        "UNIFI_SKIP_TLS_VERIFY": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code HTTP

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "unifi": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "http://127.0.0.1:40030/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${UNIFI_MCP_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Codex / Labby Gateway

Register UniFi through Labby as an HTTP upstream when sharing one long-running server, or run it directly as stdio for local-only use.

[mcp_servers.unifi]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "unifi-rmcp", "mcp"]

Generic MCP JSON

{
  "command": "runifi",
  "args": ["mcp"],
  "env": {
    "UNIFI_URL": "https://unifi.local",
    "UNIFI_API_KEY": "..."
  }
}

Do not put UNIFI_API_KEY, OAuth secrets, passwords, SSH keys, or upstream bearer tokens in MCP tool arguments. Use env, config files, or the MCP client's secret storage. MCP callers never provide credentials, tokens, keys, or secrets as action arguments.

Runtime Surfaces

MCP Tool Reference

One MCP tool is exposed: unifi. Pass the required action argument to select the operation. The action enum is generated from the inventories in data/, so the surface is large:

Counts are derived from data/unifi_official_network_v10_3_58.json and the runtime: true entries of data/unifi_internal_endpoint_models.json. crates/unifi/src/capabilities.rs is the source of truth at runtime.

Preserved Convenience Actions

Generated Action Families

Endpoint coverage is tracked in docs/unifi_api_coverage.md; contract and safe live verification are documented in docs/unifi_endpoint_verification.md.

CLI Reference

The binary calls the same service layer as the MCP tool:

runifi clients [--json]
runifi devices [--json]
runifi wlans [--json]
runifi health [--json]
runifi alarms [--json]
runifi events [--limit N] [--json]
runifi sysinfo [--json]
runifi me [--json]
runifi official_list_clients --param siteId=<uuid> --json
runifi official_create_network --param siteId=<uuid> --body-json '{"name":"IoT"}' --json
runifi list_clients --param siteId=<uuid> --json
runifi doctor [--json]
runifi setup check [--json]
runifi setup repair [--json]
runifi setup install [--json]
runifi setup plugin-hook [--no-repair] [--json]

Generated actions accept --param k=v, --body-json JSON, and --json.

setup plugin-hook maps CLAUDE_PLUGIN_OPTION_* env vars into UNIFI_*, refreshes the ~/.local/bin copy of the binary, and runs check + repair. It used to run automatically from a Claude Code SessionStart/ConfigChange hook; those hooks have been removed.

You do not need to run it to configure the plugin: plugins/unifi/.mcp.json maps your plugin settings into the server's environment directly via ${user_config.*}. Run it by hand only when you want the ~/.local/bin binary refresh or the preflight checks.

Configuration

Configuration loads from config.toml first, then UNIFI_* environment variables override it. Host installs read ~/.unifi-rmcp/.env before loading config; containers read /data/.env. Process environment overrides both.

config.toml-only settings with no environment override: mcp.server_name and the [mcp.auth] TTL, rate-limit, and allowlist fields (access_token_ttl_secs, refresh_token_ttl_secs, auth_code_ttl_secs, register_rpm, authorize_rpm, disable_static_token_with_oauth, allowed_emails, allowed_client_redirect_uris). See config.example.toml.

xtask endpoint verification reads its own variables that the server never touches: UNIFI_ALLOW_INSECURE_TLS, UNIFI_RESOLVE_IP, UNIFI_VERIFY_TIMEOUT_SECS, UNIFI_VERIFY_RATE_LIMIT_MS, UNIFI_VERIFY_MAX_REQUESTS, UNIFI_VERIFY_UNVERIFIED_INTERNAL.

Authentication

Stdio MCP runs as a local trusted child process and does not use HTTP auth.

HTTP MCP auth policy:

unifi:admin satisfies unifi:read; unifi:read does not satisfy mutating actions.

Safety And Trust Model

• UniFi API keys are loaded from config/env only.
• MCP callers select actions, params, and request bodies, not upstream credentials.
• Preserved convenience actions are read-oriented.
• Generated mutating actions require unifi:admin in mounted HTTP MCP mode.
• Unknown actions and malformed generated-action params fail before upstream calls.
• Non-loopback HTTP deployments must use bearer auth, OAuth, or a trusted authenticated gateway.
• This bridge does not sandbox UniFi itself. UniFi remains responsible for API permissions and the actual network-side effect of a mutating call.

Architecture

Capabilities   (src/capabilities.rs)   official/internal/hybrid registry
      |
UnifiClient    (src/api.rs, src/unifi.rs) HTTP path families and transport
      |
UnifiService   (src/app.rs)            action execution boundary
      |
MCP shim       (src/mcp/tools.rs)      JSON args -> service -> Value
CLI shim       (src/cli.rs)            argv -> service -> stdout

Distribution Contract

• Cargo.toml, Cargo.lock, packages/unifi-rmcp/package.json, .release-please-manifest.json, and server.json must agree on the released version.
• GitHub Releases publish the runifi binary consumed by the npm launcher.
• The npm package name is @dinglebear/runifi; binary aliases are @dinglebear/runifi and runifi.
• Docker/OCI metadata uses ghcr.io/dinglebear-ai/runifi:<version>. The GHCR namespace still reads jmagar because that is what .github/workflows/docker-publish.yml publishes; the git remote is dinglebear-ai/runifi. Do not "fix" one without the other.
• plugins/unifi/.mcp.json must launch npx -y @dinglebear/runifi mcp so stdio clients start the MCP transport rather than the HTTP server.
• plugins/unifi/ ships no Claude Code hooks. scripts/validate-plugin-layout.sh and tests/setup_cli.rs both fail if a hooks/ directory or a manifest hooks key reappears.
• The root README is curated. Source of truth for current actions and generated endpoint coverage is src/capabilities.rs, the data/ inventories, docs/unifi_api_coverage.md, and docs/unifi_endpoint_verification.md.

Development

cargo fmt --check
cargo test
cargo clippy -- -D warnings
cargo build --release
npm --prefix packages/unifi-rmcp run check

Verification

npm --prefix packages/unifi-rmcp run check
cargo check
cargo test
cargo clippy -- -D warnings
just validate-plugin
cargo run -p xtask -- verify-api-endpoints --mode contract
git diff --check

Live read probes require a controller:

UNIFI_URL=https://<gateway> \
UNIFI_API_KEY=<network-api-key> \
UNIFI_SITE=default \
UNIFI_SITE_ID=<official-site-uuid> \
UNIFI_SKIP_TLS_VERIFY=true \
cargo run -p xtask -- verify-api-endpoints --mode safe_live

Deployment

Use loopback for local development:

UNIFI_MCP_HOST=127.0.0.1 runifi serve

Use Docker Compose for shared HTTP deployment:

cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d

When binding to a non-loopback address, configure UNIFI_MCP_TOKEN, UNIFI_MCP_AUTH_MODE=oauth, or UNIFI_NOAUTH=true behind an authenticated gateway.

Troubleshooting

Related Servers

All sibling servers live under the dinglebear-ai org.

• soma - RMCP runtime and scaffold for provider-backed MCP servers.
• rtailscale - Tailscale API bridge for devices, users, and tailnet operations.
• unraid - Unraid monorepo; unraid-rs/ is the GraphQL bridge (binary runraid).
• rapprise - Apprise notification fan-out bridge for many delivery backends.
• rgotify - Gotify push notification bridge for sends, messages, apps, and clients.
• rarcane - Arcane Docker management bridge for containers and related resources.
• yarr - Media-stack bridge for Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, Plex, and related services.
• rytdl - Media download and metadata workflow server.
• synapse - Local Synapse workflow server for scout and flux actions.
• cortex - Syslog and homelab log aggregation MCP server.
• axon - RAG, crawl, scrape, extract, and semantic search project.
• labby - Homelab control plane and MCP gateway project.

Documentation

• CLAUDE.md is the curated local operating guide for contributors and agents.
• docs/unifi_api_coverage.md is the curated API-family and coverage summary.
• docs/unifi_endpoint_verification.md is the curated endpoint verification guide.
• docs/SETUP.md is curated plugin/setup guidance.
• docs/OAUTH.md is curated OAuth setup guidance.
• plugins/unifi/skills/unifi/SKILL.md is the agent usage guide.
• data/ inventories are generated/reference inputs for the action registry.
• src/ is the source of truth for current action dispatch, config defaults, auth behavior, and CLI parsing.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.