Vmware Monitor

VMware Monitor (Read-Only)

Safe, read-only VMware vCenter and ESXi monitoring skill. Query your entire VMware infrastructure using natural language through any AI coding assistant — without risk of accidental modifications.

Code-level safety: This is an independent repository (zw008/VMware-Monitor). No destructive code paths exist — no power off, delete, create, reconfigure, snapshot-create/revert/delete, clone, or migrate functions are present in the codebase. For full operations, use the separate VMware-AIops repo. Install: clawhub install vmware-aiops

When to Use This Skill

• Query VM, host, datastore, cluster, and network inventory
• Check health status, active alarms, hardware sensors, and event logs
• View VM details and existing snapshot lists (read-only)
• Run scheduled log scanning with webhook notifications (Slack, Discord)
• You need zero-risk monitoring — no accidental power-off, delete, or reconfigure possible

Quick Install

Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, Trae, Kimi, and 30+ AI agents:

# Via ClawHub (recommended)
clawhub install vmware-monitor

# Via Skills.sh
npx skills add zw008/VMware-Monitor

Claude Code

/plugin marketplace add zw008/VMware-Monitor
/plugin install vmware-monitor
/vmware-monitor:vmware-monitor

Usage Mode: MCP First, CLI Fallback

Default: MCP mode — vmware-monitor runs as an MCP Server registered in Claude Code. All monitoring queries go through MCP tool calls directly, no manual CLI needed.

Fallback: CLI mode — only when MCP connection fails (server crash, config error, etc.), switch to CLI commands via vmware-monitor in the terminal.

MCP Tools (7 tools, all read-only)

All tools accept optional target parameter (e.g., "home-esxi", "prod-vcenter").

MCP Setup (Claude Code)

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vmware-monitor": {
      "command": "/path/to/VMware-Monitor/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["-m", "mcp_server"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/VMware-Monitor",
      "env": {
        "VMWARE_MONITOR_CONFIG": "~/.vmware-monitor/config.yaml"
      }
    }
  }
}

When to Fall Back to CLI

• MCP server fails to start or crashes mid-session
• Need daemon/scan features not exposed via MCP (scan now, daemon start)
• Debugging connection issues (CLI gives more verbose output)

# Activate venv and run CLI
source /path/to/VMware-Monitor/.venv/bin/activate
vmware-monitor inventory vms --target home-esxi

Architecture

User (Natural Language)
  ↓
AI CLI Tool (Claude Code / Gemini / Codex / Aider / Continue / Trae / Kimi)
  ↓
  ├─ MCP mode (default): MCP Server (stdio) ──→ pyVmomi ──→ vSphere API
  │
  └─ CLI fallback: vmware-monitor CLI ──→ pyVmomi ──→ vSphere API
  ↓
vCenter Server ──→ ESXi Clusters ──→ VMs
    or
ESXi Standalone ──→ VMs

First Interaction: Environment Selection

When the user starts a conversation, always ask first:

1. Which environment do they want to monitor? (vCenter Server or standalone ESXi host)
2. Which target from their config? (e.g., prod-vcenter, lab-esxi)
3. If no config exists yet, guide them through creating ~/.vmware-monitor/config.yaml

Capabilities (Read-Only)

1. Inventory

2. Health & Monitoring

Monitored Event Types:

3. VM Info & Snapshot List (Read-Only)

4. Scheduled Scanning & Notifications

FORBIDDEN Operations — DO NOT EXIST IN CODEBASE

These operations cannot be performed with this skill — zero destructive code paths exist:

• ❌ vm power-on/off, vm reset, vm suspend
• ❌ vm create/delete/reconfigure
• ❌ vm snapshot-create/revert/delete
• ❌ vm clone/migrate

Direct users to VMware-AIops (clawhub install vmware-aiops) for these.

Safety Features

Version Compatibility

pyVmomi auto-negotiates the API version during SOAP handshake — no manual configuration needed.

Supported AI Platforms

CLI Reference

# Inventory
vmware-monitor inventory vms [--target <name>]
vmware-monitor inventory hosts [--target <name>]
vmware-monitor inventory datastores [--target <name>]
vmware-monitor inventory clusters [--target <name>]

# Health
vmware-monitor health alarms [--target <name>]
vmware-monitor health events [--hours 24] [--severity warning]

# VM Info (read-only)
vmware-monitor vm info <vm-name>
vmware-monitor vm snapshot-list <vm-name>

# Scanning & Daemon
vmware-monitor scan now [--target <name>]
vmware-monitor daemon start
vmware-monitor daemon stop
vmware-monitor daemon status

Setup

# 1. Install via uv (recommended) or pip
uv tool install vmware-monitor
# Or: pip install vmware-monitor

# 2. Configure
mkdir -p ~/.vmware-monitor
vmware-monitor init  # generates config.yaml and .env templates
chmod 600 ~/.vmware-monitor/.env
# Edit ~/.vmware-monitor/config.yaml and .env with your target details

Development Install

git clone https://github.com/zw008/VMware-Monitor.git
cd VMware-Monitor
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e .

License

MIT