Routing Director MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that integrates with Juniper's Routing Director platform, providing intelligent access to network routing, assurance, optimization, and intelligence capabilities.

Features

• Flexible Authentication: Supports both basic and token-based authentication
• Multiple Transport Options: HTTP and stdio transport protocols
• Device management and monitoring
• Configuration template deployment
• VPN service management
• Network topology visualization
• KPI monitoring and observability
• Customer and organization management

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10 or 3.11
• Juniper Routing Director instance
• Network connectivity to Routing Director API
• Valid Routing Director credentials (username/password or API token)

Installation

From Source

git clone https://github.com/Juniper/routing-director-mcp-server.git
cd routing-director-mcp-server
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

From MCP Registry

TBD

Configuration

Configuration File (config.json)

Create a config.json file with the following structure:

Basic Authentication:

{
  "http_url": "https://your-routing-director-host/",
  "org_id": "your-organization-id",
  "auth": {
    "type": "basic",
    "username": "your-username@example.com",
    "password": "your-password"
  }
}

Token Authentication:

{
  "http_url": "https://your-routing-director-host/",
  "org_id": "your-organization-id",
  "auth": {
    "type": "token",
    "token": "your-api-token"
  }
}

Note: This authentication is between the MCP server and the Routing Director instance. The MCP server will handle authentication with Routing Director on behalf of clients connecting to it.

Configuration Parameters

• http_url (required): URL of your Routing Director instance
• org_id (required): Your organization ID in Routing Director
• auth (required): Authentication configuration
  • type: Either basic or token
  • username: Routing Director username (for basic auth)
  • password: Routing Director password (for basic auth)
  • token: API token (for token auth)
• components (optional): Additional component configuration to filter tools and capabilities exposed by the MCP server. If the user wishes to filter the openapi spec only for certain components, then the components field can be used to provide a list of components to filter the spec.

Components can be one of the following:

• ems - For alarms related info (searching, ack and unack of alarms reported on Routing Director)
• juniper-resiliency-interface - For device syslog info (retrieving syslog messages collected on Routing Director)
• device-kpi - For fetching exception events related to Juniper Resiliency Interface (JRI) collected on Routing Director(forwarding, routing and os)

Usage

Starting the Server

python RoutingDirectorMCP.py --config config.json

Command Line Options

python RoutingDirectorMCP.py --help

Available options:

• -H, --host: Server host (default: 127.0.0.1)
• -p, --port: Server port (default: 30030)
• -t, --transport: Transport type: streamable-http or stdio (default: streamable-http)
• -c, --config: Path to configuration file (required)
• -v, --verbose: Enable verbose logging

Example: Start with Custom Configuration

python RoutingDirectorMCP.py \
  --config config.json \
  --host localhost \
  --port 8000 \
  --transport streamable-http \
  --verbose

Authentication between the MCP Server and the MCP Host(Claude/Copilot etc)

Token Management

The server supports token-based authentication through a token manager. If a tokens file exists, authentication is automatically enabled for HTTP transports.

For stdio transport, authentication is bypassed as it's typically used in secure local environments.

Enable authentication between MCP server and MCP client.

You can use file-based token authentication for communication between an MCP client and MCP
server. To generate a token, execute the following command in your local system:

   python utils/mcp/token_cli.py generate --client-id sv@juniper.net --description "Token for SV"  

Where, client-id - is an ID that you use for generating the authentication token.
The following is a sample of the generated output:

Generated new token:  
 ID: my-client  
 Token: apa_CA98sH_VwEBd79aHA6O9NxbhXQN_RqaK  
 Description: Production API  

Save the generated token in a .tokens file. By default, the token is saved in the root directory of the GitHub MCP repository.

Logging

Enable detailed logging for debugging:

LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG python RoutingDirectorMCP.py --config config.json --verbose

Connecting to the MCP Server

Users can use any MCP Host (like Claude, Copilot, Chatgpt, etc.) to connect to the MCP server. When configuring the MCP Host, use the same transport type, host, and port as specified when starting the MCP server.

Configure Claude
To configure Claude:

1. Open the Claude configuration file in a text editor.
   • On a macOS machine, run the following command in the Terminal: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json • On a Windows machine, open command prompt and enter: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
2. Add your MCP server configuration as shown below:

      {  
       "mcpServers": {  
          "RoutingDirector": {  
             "command": "/Users/username/path-to-virtual-environment/.mcp_venv/bin/python",  
             "args": [ 
                "/Users/username/path-to-mcp-python-script/RoutingDirectorMCP.py", 
                "-c", 
                "/Users/username/path-to-config-json/config.json", 
                "-t", 
                "stdio"  
                ]  
             }  
          }  
      }  

3. Save the file.
4. Restart Claude.
5. Verify the connection of Claude with MCP server.

Claude is connected to the MCP server if the MCP server tools are listed under + > Connectors.

Configure Copilot : To configure Copilot:

1. Open Virtual Studio (VS) code.
   Alternatively, you can use any other Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that supports
   Copilot and MCP server,
2. Open the MCP settings file using one of the following methods:
   • On a macOS, run the following command in the Terminal: Open ~/Library/Application\ Support/Code/User/mcp.json Where, user is your username on the macOS machine.
   • On a Windows machine, open command prompt and enter: C:/Users/YourUserName/AppData/Roaming/Code/User/mcp.json Where, user is your username on the Windows machine.
3. Add the MCP server configuration to the settings file as shown below:

{  
     "mcpServers": {  
         "RoutingDirector": {  
         "command": "/Users/username/path-to-virtual-environment/.mcp_venv/bin/python",
         "args": [ 
               "/Users/username/path-to-mcp-python-script/RoutingDirectorMCP.py", 
               "-c", "/Users/username/path-to-config-json/config.json", 
               "-t", "stdio"  
            ]  
         }  
     }  
}  

4. Save the file.
5. Close and reopen VS code for the MCP configuration changes to take effect.
6. Verify that Copilot is connected with the MCP server.
   Copilot is connected to the MCP server if you find messages indicating successful connection to the
   MCP server in the Output panel of VS code.
   Alternatively, you can view MCP server tools (API calls) listed in VS code Extensions.

To ensure that the MCP server has started correctly, view the MCP server logs. The logs are
generated based on the type of communication with the AI agent:
• Starting MCP server 'Juniper Routing Directory' with transport 'stdio' if stdio is used.
• INFO Starting MCP server 'Juniper Routing Directory' with transport 'http' on http://127.0.0.1:30030/mcp if
streamable-http is used.

For more details on configuring the MCP Servers in the MCP Host Apps , please refer VScode Copilot: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/customization/mcp-servers Claude: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/mcp

Troubleshooting

Issue: "Config file path is required"

Solution: Ensure you provide the --config flag with a valid path to your configuration file.

Issue: "Mandatory key missing in MCP config file"

Solution: Verify that your config.json includes all required keys: http_url, org_id, and auth.

Issue: "Failed to authenticate"

Solution:

• Verify your Routing Director credentials
• Ensure the Routing Director instance is accessible at the configured http_url
• Check that your username/password or API token is correct
• Verify network connectivity to the Routing Director host

Issue: Connection Refused

Solution:

• Verify the server is running with --host and --port matching your client configuration
• Check firewall rules allow traffic on the configured port

Issue: "No tokens file found. Authentication DISABLED"

Solution: For HTTP transports requiring authentication, ensure token files are properly initialized. For development/testing, this is typically acceptable.

Release 2.9.0

Current version: v2.9.0

Juniper's Routing Director 2.9.0 User Guide: https://www.juniper.net/documentation/us/en/software/juniper-routing-director2.9.0/user-guide/index.html

Whats new?

• Support for running junos operational and configurational commands on the MCP server using the execute_junos_command(for operational commands) and junos_config_set, junos_config_diff and junos_config_commit (for configuration commands) tools. This allows users to push configuration changes to Junos devices directly from the MCP server. For more details please refer the documentation: https://www.juniper.net/documentation/us/en/software/juniper-routing-director2.9.0/user-guide/topics/topic-map/mcp-server-use.html

• Bug fixes

Known Issues:

1. The MCP server's command blacklist only covers operational mode commands. Destructive configuration commands — such as delete, rollback factory, load factory-default, and their NETCONF equivalents — are not blocked and can be executed if triggered by a user prompt or LLM-generated action, potentially causing loss of critical device configuration. Workaround: We recommend that you avoid prompts that may trigger destructive configuration changes. Additionally, enable the MCP approval workflow to require manual confirmation before any configuration-changing commands are executed on devices.

2. When the http_url in the MCP configuration file (config.json) ends with a trailing slash (/) and when the Routing Director's MCP server functionality (junos_config_commit tool call) for pushing commits onto the Junos device is called, the MCP server incorrectly constructs the API URL with a double slash (//). This results in a 400 Bad Request error and fails to execute the tool call. Workaround: Ensure the http_url in the MCP server’s config.json does not include a trailing slash. Use http_url": "https://" instead of http_url": "https:///".

3. In Routing Director's Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration, inconsistent argument naming for MAC address parameters across multiple tools (For example, mac, router_mac, device_mac) causes the AI model to hallucinate incorrect argument names. Workaround: If you are encountering this issue, you can retry the query or explicitly specify the correct argument name in the prompt to guide the MCP co-pilot toward the right parameter. You can refer to the MCP tool documentation for the exact expected parameter name, which can help avoid hallucination errors.

Acknowledgments

This MCP server integrates with Juniper Networks' Routing Director platform, providing enterprise-grade network intelligence and optimization capabilities.