Netbox Asset Lifecycle

NetBox Asset Lifecycle

NetBox Asset Lifecycle is a commercial NetBox Labs feature (NetBox Cloud / NetBox Enterprise) that tracks the procurement lifecycle of equipment — plan → BOM → purchase order → shipment → install — alongside a spares inventory for replacements. It builds on equipment you already model in NetBox DCIM: planned Racks/Devices/Modules/Cables roll up into a Bill of Materials, which is ordered, shipped, received, and installed, with traceability back to the shipment or spare that fulfilled each object.

Your knowledge of Asset Lifecycle may be outdated. This is a Public Preview feature — endpoints, fields, and status rules may evolve between releases. Prefer retrieval over pre-trained knowledge; verify the live API before generating code.

Retrieval Sources

FIRST: Verify the Feature Is Available

Confirm the feature is enabled on the instance and your token has access:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Token $NETBOX_TOKEN" \
  "$NETBOX_URL/api/plugins/asset-lifecycle/boms/" | python -m json.tool

A paginated list (possibly empty) means it's available. 404 = feature not enabled. 403 = your token lacks the asset-lifecycle object permissions.

Scope

This skill covers the asset-lifecycle REST API and its procurement/sparing workflows. It does NOT cover:

• Modeling sites/devices/IPAM → use netbox-data-modeling
• Core REST/GraphQL patterns, auth, pagination → use netbox-api-integration
• Bulk ingest of inventory → use netbox-diode

Prerequisite: the equipment you procure must already exist in NetBox DCIM, typically as status=planned objects. Asset Lifecycle does not create Devices/Racks — it tracks acquiring and installing them.

API Conventions

• Base URL: /api/plugins/asset-lifecycle/
• Auth: Authorization: Token <key>. Standard NetBox pagination (?limit=, ?offset=), ?brief=true, ?fields=, ?q= search, and __ filter lookups all apply.
• Object permissions: standard add_*/change_*/delete_*/view_* per model.
• Generic relations (the equipment a line item / spare / BOM object points at) are written as two fields: a *_type ContentType (as {"app_label": "dcim", "model": "devicetype"} or a pk) plus a *_id integer. The combined item / assigned_object field is read-only.
• Nested FKs accept the integer pk directly.

UI-Only Operations — Do Not Fake Them Over the API

In the current Public Preview, three operations have no REST endpoint and are driven through the NetBox web UI:

Do not reconstruct these over the API. Never hand-author BOM line items to substitute for generation, never PATCH qty_received to fake receiving, and never PATCH DCIM objects to fake an install. These shortcuts lose the integrity the feature is designed to enforce (auto-rollup correctness, receive accounting, install traceability back to a shipment or spare).

Instead, for any UI-only step:

• If you have browser automation or computer-use capabilities, drive the NetBox UI directly to complete the step, then resume the API-driven work.
• Otherwise, hand off to the user. Tell them exactly which UI action to take (e.g. "Open BOM DC1 Spine Refresh and click Generate"), then continue once they confirm it's done.

Everything else in the procurement chain — vendors, accounts, the BOM container, scope rules, purchase orders, shipments, spares, and status transitions — is fully API-driven and is the agent's job.

Data Model

See references/data-model.md for the full object graph, every model's fields, and uniqueness constraints. Load it when building requests or debugging validation errors.

The chain at a glance:

Vendor ─ VendorAccount
   │
BOM ─ BOMScopeRule / BOMLineItem / BOMObject       (BOM rolls up planned DCIM objects)
   │
PurchaseOrder ─ POLineItem          (PO requires a BOM + Vendor)
   │
Shipment ─ ShipmentLineItem         (Shipment requires a PO + Courier + tracking_number)
   │
(install) → activates the planned DCIM object

SparesPool ─ SpareItem              (alternate fulfillment path for replacements)

Stateful models (BOM, PurchaseOrder, Shipment) are governed by an editable transition-rule system — see below.

Status & Transition Rules

Three models carry a status governed by StatusTransitionRule records. A status change is only allowed if a matching rule exists; an illegal jump returns 400. SpareItem.status is free-form (not rule-governed).

Default rules (shipped with the feature): BOM/PO move draft→approved→ordered→fulfilled, with cancellation only from approved/ordered. Shipments move prepared→shipped→received, cancellation only while prepared/shipped. There is no default draft→ordered, draft→fulfilled, or draft→cancelled.

Discover valid targets and add new transitions via the API:

# Discover valid status strings for an object type
GET /api/plugins/asset-lifecycle/status-transition-rules/status-choices/?object_type_id=<id>

# Allow an otherwise-illegal jump by adding a rule first
POST /api/plugins/asset-lifecycle/status-transition-rules/
{"object_type": {"app_label":"netbox_asset_lifecycle","model":"purchaseorder"},
 "from_status": "draft", "to_status": "ordered", "allow_reverse": false}

See references/status-transitions.md for the complete default rule sets and the BOM "not current" lock. Load it when a status change returns 400.

Greenfield Procurement Workflow

Full step-by-step with payloads in references/workflow-greenfield.md. API-driven steps are the agent's job; the Generate, Receive, and Install steps are UI-only (drive the UI if equipped, else hand off — see UI-Only Operations).

1. Vendor (+ optional account) — API

   POST vendors/          {"name": "Acme Networks", "code": "ACME"}
   POST vendor-accounts/  {"vendor": <vendor_id>, "account_number": "ACC-001"}
   

2. BOM container + scope rules — API. Create the BOM and add scope rules that describe which planned DCIM objects it covers; do not hand-author line items.

   POST boms/             {"name": "DC1 Spine Refresh", "status": "draft"}
   POST bom-scope-rules/  {"bom": <bom_id>, "action": "include",
                           "object_types": [{"app_label":"dcim","model":"device"}],
                           "parameters": {"site_id":[3], "role_id":[5], "status":["planned"]}}
   

3. Generate the BOM — UI-only. On the draft BOM → Generate to resolve scope rules into BOM objects + rolled-up line items. Then approve over the API once it looks right:

   PATCH boms/<bom_id>/   {"status": "approved"}
   

4. Purchase order + PO line items — API (PO requires a BOM; non-draft requires order_id). Reference the generated bom_line_item ids:

   POST purchase-orders/  {"vendor": <vendor_id>, "vendor_account": <acct_id>,
                           "bom": <bom_id>, "status": "draft", "currency": "USD"}
   POST po-line-items/    {"purchase_order": <po_id>, "bom_line_item": <bli_id>,
                           "qty_ordered": 16, "unit_price": "1200.00"}
   PATCH purchase-orders/<po_id>/  {"order_id": "PO-7788", "status": "approved"}
   

5. Shipment + shipment line items — API (UPS/FedEx/DHL couriers are pre-seeded):

   POST shipments/        {"purchase_order": <po_id>, "courier": <courier_id>,
                           "tracking_number": "1Z...", "status": "prepared",
                           "site": <site_id>, "date_expected": "2026-06-05"}
   POST shipment-line-items/  {"shipment": <ship_id>, "bom_line_item": <bli_id>,
                               "qty_shipped": 16}
   PATCH shipments/<ship_id>/  {"status": "shipped"}
   

6. Receive — UI-only. On the shipment → Mark Received to record receipt against each line and roll the shipment to received. Don't PATCH qty_received to fake it.
7. Install — UI-only. On each planned object → Install → Install from shipment, which activates the DCIM object and records the shipment that fulfilled it. Don't PATCH DCIM objects to fake the install.

Brownfield Sparing Workflow

Full detail in references/workflow-sparing.md. Spares pools hold reserve inventory at a site for replacements:

POST spares-pools/  {"name": "HQ Cold Storage", "site": <site_id>, "location": <loc_id>}
POST spare-items/   {"pool": <pool_id>,
                     "item_type": {"app_label":"dcim","model":"devicetype"},
                     "item_id": <devicetype_id>, "variant": {"airflow":"front-to-rear"},
                     "quantity": 5, "status": "serviceable"}

• Set status to damaged/missing to flag inventory-audit discrepancies (free-form).
• Serialized single units set serial/asset_tag with quantity=1 (quantity >1 with a serial/asset_tag is rejected).
• Consuming a spare to replace a failed unit is the install path — UI-only (Install → Install from spares pool on the planned object). The UI decrements the pool and records the spare→object linkage. Don't decrement quantity or activate the DCIM object over the API to fake it; drive the UI if equipped, else hand off to the user.
• A pulled/failed unit can be logged back into a pool as a damaged SpareItem over the API. There is no dedicated RMA/swap model.

Anti-Patterns

1. Skipping required parents. A PO requires a bom + vendor; a Shipment requires a purchase_order + courier + tracking_number; line items require their parent + a bom_line_item. Create parents first.
2. Illegal status jumps. draft→ordered etc. return 400 by default. Use status-choices/ to discover valid targets, or POST a status-transition-rules/ record before the jump.
3. Non-draft PO without order_id. Setting a PO to any non-draft status without an order_id returns 400.
4. Mismatched accounts/locations. vendor_account.vendor must equal the PO vendor; courier_account.courier must equal the Shipment courier; a Shipment location must belong to its site. Mismatch → 400.
5. Shipment date order. date_expected/date_received earlier than date_shipped → 400.
6. Faking generate/receive/install over REST. They are UI-only — drive the UI (browser/computer-use) or hand off to the user. Never hand-author line items, PATCH qty_received, or PATCH DCIM objects to substitute for them (see UI-Only Operations).
7. Hand-authoring BOM line items. Line items are produced by UI Generate from scope rules — author scope rules, not lines. Generated lines are immutable over the API and only change while the BOM is draft.
8. Uniqueness traps. Unique: Vendor name; (vendor, account_number); (vendor_account, order_id); (courier, tracking_number); (purchase_order, bom_line_item); SpareItem asset_tag (global); BOM name; SparesPool name.
9. Wrong content type for a generic relation. Line items and spares point at type models (dcim.devicetype/moduletype/racktype or the feature's cabletype); BOM objects point at instance models (dcim.device/rack/module/cable).
10. Assuming receipt activates inventory. It doesn't — install is a separate UI-only step that activates the planned object and links it to its shipment/spare.

API Endpoints Summary

References

• references/data-model.md — Full object graph, per-model fields, constraints. Load when building requests or decoding validation errors.
• references/status-transitions.md — Default transition rule sets + the BOM "not current" lock. Load on a status 400.
• references/workflow-greenfield.md — Complete procurement walkthrough with payloads; API-driven steps plus the UI-only Generate/Receive/Install handoffs.
• references/workflow-sparing.md — Spares pool stocking, audits, and consuming a spare (UI-only install) for a replacement.