gabrielmoreira Catalyst Center (read-only)
Server
catc-mcp — a NetClaw client over Cisco's official tool catalogue
(cisco-en-programmability/catc-mcp-oss, Apache-2.0, release/2.3.7.11). Strictly read-only: all
514 GET operations, the one mutating operation excluded. Manifest 1,821 tokens, where inlining
every upstream tool would cost 64,420.
The 10 tools
Start with discovery — the catalogue is far too large to carry in the tool list:
| Tool | Use |
|---|---|
catc_find(query, group, limit) |
Search all 514 operations by keyword or URI. Start here |
catc_describe_operation(name) |
Full parameter schema for one operation |
Then dispatch — catc_<group>(operation, params):
catc_devices · catc_sites · catc_wireless · catc_health · catc_compliance ·
catc_software · catc_events · catc_other
Operation names are not guessable. They are generated from Cisco's API spec — the device list is
api_getSites-style naming, not getDeviceList. Always catc_find first. Guessing wastes a call and
gets a refusal that names near-matches.
⚠ Two rules
1. An empty inventory is not an empty network
Zero devices means this controller manages none. It does not mean the network is empty. The causes are different and matter:
| Cause | What it means |
|---|---|
| Discovery has not run | devices exist, Catalyst Center has not found them |
| RBAC scopes the account | the estate is larger than this account can see |
| The wrong appliance | you are asking a controller that manages nothing |
| A filter excluded everything | your parameters, not the network |
| Genuinely nothing onboarded | the only case that is about the estate |
This is not hypothetical. The two DevNet sandboxes share credentials and are not equivalent —
sandboxdnac.cisco.com has 4 devices and 25 sites; sandboxdnac2.cisco.com has 0 devices and
authenticates perfectly. An inventory answer from the second looks exactly like a real empty estate.
That is why every response names the appliance it came from, and why an empty result or a zero count carries an explicit caveat. Repeat the appliance name when you report a count, especially a zero.
2. "Catalyst Center says" is not "the device is"
reachabilityStatus is the controller's last polling result, not ground truth. A device shown
Unreachable may be perfectly healthy and merely unreachable from the controller — a management-VRF
problem, an ACL, a dead SNMP/NETCONF agent on an otherwise forwarding switch.
Catalyst Center is a database of what it last learned. A device can be listed and long dead, or absent
and carrying traffic. Say when it was observed, and if the answer matters, confirm against the device
with pyats or multivendor-cli.
Outcomes you will see
outcome |
Means |
|---|---|
ok |
records returned |
empty |
this controller returned nothing — see rule 1, never report as a network fact |
unreachable |
the appliance could not be reached. Not an empty result |
auth_failed |
credentials rejected or token expired. State is unknown, not empty |
forbidden |
RBAC denied it — and a related answer you did get may be scoped, not complete |
not_configured |
no appliance is configured at all |
refused |
unknown operation, or a missing path parameter |
unreachable, auth_failed and empty are three different facts. Never collapse them.
Boundaries
| Want to… | Use |
|---|---|
| Read the device itself | pyats, multivendor-cli — when they disagree with the controller, the device is right |
| Intended state | netbox, nautobot — this is discovered state. A device here and not in NetBox is a reconciliation finding, not an error |
| Search Cisco documentation | devnet-catalyst-search — that reads docs; this queries an appliance |
| Wireless client experience over time | thousandeyes, prometheus |
| Change anything | nothing here. Read-only; no mutation is reachable |
Rules
catc_findbefore dispatching. Operation names are generated, not guessable.- Never report an empty result or zero count as a network fact. Name the appliance.
- Never say a device is down because Catalyst Center cannot reach it.
- State when the controller observed the data.
forbiddenon one call means other answers may be scoped. Say so.- Read-only.