UniFi Access MCP README
The full upstream README, mirrored here for reference. Install config, tool schemas, adoption signals, and an original overview live on the UniFi Access MCP listing page.
UniFi MCP
Leverage agents and agentic AI workflows to manage your UniFi deployment.
Servers
| Server | Status | Tools | Package |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network | Stable | 194 | unifi-network-mcp |
| Protect | Stable | 62 | unifi-protect-mcp |
| Access | Stable | 37 | unifi-access-mcp |
Cloud Relay
| Component | Status | Package |
|---|---|---|
| Relay Sidecar | Beta | unifi-mcp-relay |
| Worker Gateway | Beta | unifi-mcp-worker (CLI) |
Cloud Relay pairs the Cloudflare-hosted Worker gateway with the Relay sidecar on your LAN. The Worker provides the authenticated edge MCP endpoint, Durable Object broker, multi-location routing, token boundary, and deployment/management CLI. The Relay sidecar is a local MCP HTTP client and forwarder: it discovers configured local MCP servers over HTTP and maintains an outbound WebSocket to the Worker. Remote requests follow MCP client → Worker gateway → outbound WebSocket → Relay sidecar → local MCP servers over HTTP; the API server is not in this path. Read-only tools support annotation-based multi-location fan-out, while writes require explicit location targeting. Deploy the Worker with npm install -g unifi-mcp-worker && unifi-mcp-worker install, then see the Relay sidecar README to connect local servers.
REST + GraphQL API (non-MCP)
| Component | Status | Package |
|---|---|---|
| API Server | Beta | unifi-api-server · GHCR image |
unifi-api-server is an independent HTTP service for consumers that do not speak MCP. It provides typed REST resources, read-only GraphQL queries, SSE streams, scoped API keys and administration, plus a REST action endpoint for supported controller operations. It shares unifi-core managers with the MCP servers but does not proxy or require them.
See apps/api/README.md for quick-start and deployment patterns.
What is this?
UniFi MCP is a collection of Model Context Protocol servers that let AI assistants and automation tools interact with Ubiquiti UniFi controllers. Each server targets a specific UniFi application (Network, Protect, Access) and exposes its functionality as MCP tools — queryable, composable, and safe by default.
MCP HTTP Access
MCP HTTP is unauthenticated and intended for trusted local clients. HTTP is disabled by default; when enabled, packages bind to loopback. Docker Compose enables it on the container network and publishes ports 3000–3002 on host 127.0.0.1. Use an authenticated TLS proxy or Cloud Relay for remote access, and prevent direct access to the backend. See the transport security model and HTTP setup and migration.
| Setting | Default | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
UNIFI_MCP_HTTP_ENABLED | false | Opt into HTTP transport |
UNIFI_MCP_HOST | 127.0.0.1 | Bind address; Compose explicitly uses 0.0.0.0 inside containers |
UNIFI_MCP_HTTP_FORCE | false | Allow HTTP outside container PID 1 |
MCP Discovery
UniFi MCP keeps the standard MCP path primary: capable clients discover currently registered tools with tools/list and invoke them with tools/call. The default lazy mode keeps initial context small by exposing meta-tools first, while eager mode registers all selected domain tools directly for clients that prefer a full standard tool list.
The lazy-loading meta-tools — *_tool_index, *_execute, *_batch, *_batch_status, and lazy-only *_load_tools — support filtered discovery, indirect execution, batch orchestration, and optional direct registration. They are independent of the protocol-version response compatibility policy below. See MCP Discovery and Lazy-Loading Meta-Tools for mode-by-mode behavior.
MCP response size
For tool results that already provide structured output, adaptive response mode is the default. It classifies each request by the canonical date-based protocolVersion advertised during MCP initialization, not by the client's product name or application version. Requests advertising MCP 2025-06-18 or later receive concise text in content and the full result once in structuredContent; requests advertising an earlier revision (such as 2024-11-05 or 2025-03-26), or whose revision metadata is missing or malformed, retain the full compatibility JSON in content. Set UNIFI_MCP_CONTENT_MODE=compat to force that duplicated compatibility form, or UNIFI_MCP_CONTENT_MODE=compact to force concise text plus the full structured result even outside a negotiated request. Use compat for any client that consumes the full result only from content, regardless of its advertised revision.
The lazy-loading meta-tools remain content-only; they are not the pre-2025-06-18 protocol category described above. For structured inner results, *_execute and *_batch_status expose one normalized JSON payload in content rather than a nested transport pair; content-only execute results remain unchanged. Response modes do not convert these meta-tools to structuredContent.
UNIFI_NETWORK_MCP_CONTENT_MODE, UNIFI_PROTECT_MCP_CONTENT_MODE, and UNIFI_ACCESS_MCP_CONTENT_MODE override the global setting for their respective servers. Independently of transport compaction, Network's unifi_get_dashboard defaults to summary=true, while unifi_list_rogue_aps defaults to a summarized page of at most 100 records; pass summary=false when the full selected data is required.
Quick Start
Claude Code (recommended)
Install via the plugin marketplace — includes the MCP server, an agent skill, and guided setup:
Repeat for Protect or Access if needed:
Each plugin's setup command walks you through connecting to your controller and configuring permissions.
Codex
Register the UniFi MCP marketplace, then install the plugins from Codex's /plugins UI:
Launch codex, run /plugins, open the UniFi MCP marketplace, and install unifi-network, unifi-protect, or unifi-access. After installing, ask Codex to run the plugin's setup skill, for example:
Use the
unifi-network-setupskill to configure this for Codex.
The setup skill registers the MCP server with codex mcp add, stores the selected environment values in Codex's MCP configuration, and keeps the same preview-before-confirm safety model as Claude Code.
UniFi account requirements
The MCP servers authenticate to the local UniFi controller APIs with a local admin/service account. Do not use a Ubiquiti SSO cloud account for MCP setup. For Network MCP today, accounts that require SSO MFA or local 2FA are not supported through configuration; use a dedicated local admin account without MFA for the service account, scoped to the permissions you are comfortable giving the MCP server.
OpenClaw
OpenClaw can install the same UniFi plugin bundles from the marketplace and map their skills plus MCP server definitions into embedded Pi sessions:
Then run the matching setup skill from OpenClaw (unifi-network-setup, unifi-protect-setup, or unifi-access-setup), or configure the server directly:
Repeat with unifi-protect or unifi-access as needed. Restart the OpenClaw Gateway after changing MCP server configuration.
Other MCP clients
Run the servers directly:
For Claude Desktop, add to your claude_desktop_config.json:
Tip: If all servers connect to the same controller, you can use the shared
UNIFI_HOST/UNIFI_USERNAME/UNIFI_PASSWORDvariables instead of repeating them per server.
Usage Examples
Once connected, just ask your AI agent in natural language:
Network
"Show me all clients on the Guest VLAN with their signal strength and data usage" "Create a firewall rule that blocks IoT devices from reaching the internet between midnight and 6 AM" "Audit my firewall policies — are there any redundant or conflicting rules?" "Show me the top traffic flows from the last hour and group them by destination"
Protect
"List all cameras that detected motion in the last hour" "Show me smart detection events from the front door camera today — people and vehicles only" "Find driveway detections for white vans this week"
Access
"Who badged into the office today? Show me a timeline of all door access events" "Create a visitor pass for John Smith with access to the main entrance tomorrow 9-5"
Cross-Product (requires relay for full experience)
"Show me everything that happened at the front entrance in the last hour" — correlates Network clients, Protect camera events, and Access badge scans in a single timeline "A switch went offline at 2 AM — was there physical activity nearby?"
All mutations use a preview-then-confirm flow — you see exactly what will change before anything is applied.
Configuration
Set these variables in the server's process environment (shell exports, the MCP client's env block, or Docker environment: / env_file:):
| Variable | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
UNIFI_HOST | Yes | Controller IP or hostname |
UNIFI_USERNAME | Yes | Local admin/service account username; do not use a Ubiquiti SSO account |
UNIFI_PASSWORD | Yes | Password for the local account |
UNIFI_API_KEY | No | UniFi API key for selected capabilities, including firewall policy ordering and some Protect settings updates |
CONFIG_PATH | No | Absolute path to an operator-controlled custom YAML file; otherwise uses bundled configuration |
Startup configuration: The servers do not automatically load .env files or config/config.yaml from the working directory. MCP clients may launch servers inside untrusted projects, so project files must not control where credentials are sent or weaken permissions and redaction. If you previously relied on automatic loading, select a trusted env file in your launcher (for example, uv run --env-file /absolute/path/to/trusted.env --with unifi-network-mcp unifi-network-mcp) or set an absolute CONFIG_PATH for custom YAML. Docker Compose env_file: remains supported.
To keep the secret out of the MCP client's environment (and out of every process the client spawns), set UNIFI_PASSWORD_FILE to a path whose contents are the password, or UNIFI_PASSWORD_COMMAND to an absolute argv whose stdout is the password (contract). The same _FILE / _COMMAND suffixes work on UNIFI_API_KEY and on the per-server variables below. Details are in each server's docs/configuration.md.
Multi-controller setups
Each server supports its own prefixed environment variables that take priority over the shared UNIFI_* variables. This lets you point the Network and Protect servers at different controllers (or different credentials) while keeping a single trusted env file explicitly loaded by the launcher:
| Shared (fallback) | Network server | Protect server | Access server |
|---|---|---|---|
UNIFI_HOST | UNIFI_NETWORK_HOST | UNIFI_PROTECT_HOST | UNIFI_ACCESS_HOST |
UNIFI_USERNAME | UNIFI_NETWORK_USERNAME | UNIFI_PROTECT_USERNAME | UNIFI_ACCESS_USERNAME |
UNIFI_PASSWORD | UNIFI_NETWORK_PASSWORD | UNIFI_PROTECT_PASSWORD | UNIFI_ACCESS_PASSWORD |
UNIFI_PORT | UNIFI_NETWORK_PORT | UNIFI_PROTECT_PORT | UNIFI_ACCESS_PORT |
UNIFI_VERIFY_SSL | UNIFI_NETWORK_VERIFY_SSL | UNIFI_PROTECT_VERIFY_SSL | UNIFI_ACCESS_VERIFY_SSL |
UNIFI_API_KEY | UNIFI_NETWORK_API_KEY | UNIFI_PROTECT_API_KEY | UNIFI_ACCESS_API_KEY |
Single controller? Just set the shared UNIFI_* variables -- all servers will use them. Server-specific variables are only needed when the servers talk to different controllers or use different credentials.
For the full configuration reference including permissions, transports, and advanced options, see the Network server docs, Protect server docs, or Access server docs.
Secret redaction
Tool and API responses redact known controller secret fields by default — Wi-Fi passphrases, VPN private/preshared keys, whole VPN config blobs (imported WireGuard/OpenVPN .conf/.ovpn files), API tokens, SNMP community strings, SNMPv3 passwords, device-SSH credentials and the management key, and Access credential token/PIN values come back as ***REDACTED***. This keeps secrets out of agent context and logs.
When a trusted local administration workflow genuinely needs raw values, disable redaction for that process with UNIFI_REDACT_SENSITIVE_FIELDS=false or a server-specific override such as UNIFI_NETWORK_REDACT_SENSITIVE_FIELDS=false, UNIFI_PROTECT_REDACT_SENSITIVE_FIELDS=false, UNIFI_ACCESS_REDACT_SENSITIVE_FIELDS=false, or UNIFI_API_REDACT_SENSITIVE_FIELDS=false. To keep an existing secret during an update, simply omit the field — do not pass the ***REDACTED*** marker back; doing so is rejected so the placeholder can never be written as a real secret. See PRIVACY.md for the full list of redacted fields.
Agent Skills
Each plugin ships with agent skills that go beyond raw tool access — they teach agents how to perform common tasks effectively:
| Skill | Plugin | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Network Health Check | unifi-network | Batch diagnostics across devices, health subsystems, and alarms with reference docs for interpreting results |
| Firewall Manager | unifi-network | Natural language firewall management with policy templates, config snapshots, and change tracking |
| Firewall Auditor | unifi-network | Security audit with 16 benchmarks, 100-point scoring, topology analysis, and trend tracking |
| Security Digest | unifi-protect | Cross-product event intelligence — summarizes camera, door, and network events with severity classification and correlation rules |
| UniFi Access | unifi-access | Door control, credentials, visitors, access policies — with real-time event streaming and activity summaries |
Skills include reference documentation (device states, alarm types, firewall schemas, event catalogs) and Python scripts for deterministic operations (auditing, config export/diff, template application).
Architecture
This is a monorepo with shared packages:
Each Python server in apps/ is an independent package that depends on the shared packages. apps/worker/ is intentionally separate: it is a self-contained TypeScript/Node app for the Cloudflare Worker gateway and npm CLI. Keeping it in this repo lets relay protocol changes and worker contract tests move together.
See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for details.
Development
Contributing
See CONTRIBUTING.md for the development workflow, including how to work with the monorepo, run tests, and submit PRs.
Support the Project
UniFi MCP is maintained as an independent open-source project. Sponsorship helps cover the ongoing AI costs behind building, testing, and maintaining the project, plus live controller compatibility testing, release maintenance, documentation, and issue triage across the Network, Protect, Access, API, relay, and plugin packages.
For a reproducible Network, Protect, or Access MCP problem, if the server can start and register tools, generate and review an optional sanitized support bundle before opening a public bug report. If it cannot, use the bug report's manual form fields instead. Support bundles are safer than ordinary diagnostic logs but remain sanitized, not anonymous.