MCP (Model Context Protocol) for Cisco APIC

This project provides a simple MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that interacts with a Cisco APIC controller. If you'd like to understand how this works in detail, please check out this blog post

• Tested with Claude Desktop and Visual Studio Code in Agent mode with Copilot.
• The server runs in STDIO mode, intended for local execution.

Features

• Exposes two tools for APIC interaction (see app/main.py for details).
• Easily configurable via environment variables.

Setup

1. Specify APIC credentials in the .env file.

2. If you want Claude or VS Code to run the Python code directly (no container), install UV

3. Register the MCP server with Claude or VS Code.

   For VS Code, create a .vscode/mcp.json file like this in your workspace:

   {
     "servers": {
       "ciscoApicServer": {
         "type": "stdio",
         "command": "C:\\Users\\cpaggen\\.local\\bin\\uv.EXE",
         "args": [
           "run",
           "--with",
           "mcp[cli]",
           "mcp",
           "run",
           "C:\\MCP\\app\\main.py"
         ]
       }
     }
   }
   

4. Instruct Claude Desktop or VS Code to use it:

   • See Claude Desktop Quickstart
   • See VS Code Copilot MCP Servers

5. Install MCP client tools locally if you invoke the MCP server with uv run mcp as above.

   • Use uv add "mcp[cli]" or pip install "mcp[cli]"

Docker Support

You can run the server directly using UV, or build a Docker image and run it as a container. If using Docker, adapt the mcp.json config accordingly.

Note: Local installation of MCP client tools is recommended for debugging the server code.

Screenshots

Below are some screenshots demonstrating the MCP server in action and its integration with Claude Desktop and VS Code:

MCP Server Registered	Tool Registered in Claude	Claude Tools List

MCP Server Output	Sample Question in VS Code	Sample Question in Claude

How to Use ACI Backup

These images illustrate the registration process, available tools, and example interactions.