Domotz Power Outlets

Domotz Power Outlets

Overview

Domotz can read and switch outlets on PDUs and smart plugs it has discovered as devices. This is the only part of the Domotz MCP surface that changes anything — every other tool the server registers is a GET. It does not restart a service or reboot an operating system. It interrupts mains power to whatever is physically plugged into that outlet.

Both tools are device-scoped: the PDU itself is a discovered device, so you need the agent_id of the site and the device_id of the PDU before you can address an outlet.

Anti-triggers

• Rebooting a managed endpoint or server gracefully — an OS-level restart that flushes buffers and runs shutdown hooks is an RMM job; use ncentral or atera. Reach for the outlet only when the device is unreachable by every softer means.
• Rebooting Meraki hardware — the Dashboard reboots its own devices by serial and brings them back cleanly; use meraki-devices.
• A device that is merely offline in the inventory — offline in domotz-devices means it stopped answering scans, which is not the same as needing power cut. Diagnose first.
• Anything about the outlet's own metrics — draw, load, and SNMP counters on the PDU are domotz-network.

Tools

device_id is the PDU, not the equipment plugged into it. Domotz has no mapping from "the file server" to "the outlet the file server is plugged into" — that association lives in your documentation, not in the API.

The confirm argument is not a safety control

domotz_power_outlet_control refuses to run unless confirm: true is passed, and the server prefixes its own description with DESTRUCTIVE ACTION. Both are worth knowing about and neither is an enforcement point:

• confirm is an ordinary boolean in the tool's input schema. The model supplies it. A model that has decided to cycle the outlet will supply true in the same call — it is a spelling requirement, not a second pair of eyes.
• Conduit is a non-interactive client. Vendor-side destructive hints and confirmation flags are advisory to it; it compares permission tiers and nothing else. See wyre-gateway/GOVERNANCE.md, Where Conduit is the only enforcement point.

Treat the real gate as the one in GOVERNANCE.md: a named human approver per invocation, and never this tool for an unattended agent.

Before any off or cycle

1. Confirm which outlet. Call domotz_power_outlets_list and read the outlet's own label and current state. Do not infer the outlet number from position or from a previous site.
2. Confirm what is on it. The API will not tell you. Check the customer's documentation, and if it is not documented, do not proceed.
3. Confirm the site is attended, or that it does not need to be. There is no confirmation that connected equipment came back — only that the outlet is energised again. If the device does not boot, the recovery is someone physically on site.
4. Confirm the agent is online. Check domotz_agents_get. A stale collector means the outlet state you just read may not be current.
5. Prefer cycle over off when the intent is a restart. An off with nobody to turn it back on strands the device; cycle at least ends in the energised state.

Blast radius

off and cycle are mains interruptions with no undo:

• Unbuffered writes on servers and storage arrays are lost; filesystem and database corruption is a real outcome, not a theoretical one.
• A firewall, switch, or router on that outlet takes the whole site's connectivity with it — including the Domotz agent itself, which is how you would have observed the result.
• Cutting power to the agent's own uplink removes your ability to turn the outlet back on remotely.

The Domotz audit log records that the API account called the tool. It does not record which outlet. Conduit's log records who called it, also without arguments. Neither log will reconstruct what you switched, so the ticket note is the only durable record — write it before the call, not after.

Common Workflows

Read outlet state for a PDU

1. Call domotz_devices_list for the site and find the PDU device.
2. Call domotz_power_outlets_list with that agent_id and device_id.
3. Report each outlet's label and state. Stop here for anything read-only.

Human-approved power cycle

1. Establish the device is unreachable by softer means and that an RMM restart is not available.
2. Run the pre-flight checks above.
3. Name the approver and record the site, PDU, outlet, and reason.
4. Call domotz_power_outlet_control with action: "cycle" and confirm: true.
5. Re-read with domotz_power_outlets_list to confirm the outlet is energised — and separately with domotz_devices_get to see whether the equipment actually came back. The outlet reporting on is not evidence that the device booted.

Error Handling

Power control requires confirm: true

Cause: confirm was omitted or false. The server returns this before issuing any request. Solution: Do not simply retry with confirm: true. This is the point at which to check that a human approved this specific outlet.

Outlet action returns success but the device stays offline

Cause: The equipment did not boot, or it is not on the outlet you switched. Solution: Re-read the outlet list; check domotz_devices_get for the target device; escalate to on-site. Do not cycle repeatedly.

404 on the outlet path

Cause: The device is not a PDU, or outlet_id does not exist on it. Solution: Re-run domotz_power_outlets_list for valid outlet IDs.

Related Skills

• devices - Finding the PDU in the device inventory
• agents - Collector health, which gates trusting outlet state
• network - SNMP metrics from the PDU
• api-patterns - Authentication and error codes