lanforge-mcp

Built with Claude Code in 48 hours by Macha Praveen for Candela Technologies.

Drive Candela Technologies' LANforge Wi-Fi test platform with Claude — or any MCP client.

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▶ Run the live demo: https://machapraveen.github.io/lanforge-mcp/ — three click-through scenarios, no install required.

v0.1.0 — six tools, mock-mode default, MIT licensed. 63 tests, 88% coverage, mypy --strict clean. Python 3.10+, mcp SDK 1.2+.

Why

LANforge already speaks JSON over HTTP on port 8080 (/cli-json/:cmd, /port/:resource/:port, /events, /help/:cmd). Structurally, that's an MCP server waiting to happen — a self-documenting test harness an LLM can drive directly. Nobody has shipped this. Spirent Octobox can't, because it's GUI-locked. LANforge can, because Ben Greear made the right architectural call a decade ago by exposing the CLI over HTTP.

lanforge-mcp is the smallest possible bridge: six tools, one resource pack, one prompt template, no LLM dependency. It runs in mock mode out of the box so you can demo it with no hardware. Point LANFORGE_HOST and LANFORGE_PORT at a real LANforge GUI instance (launched with -httpd) to talk to a real box.

Install

# (future) pip install lanforge-mcp

git clone https://github.com/machapraveen/lanforge-mcp.git
cd lanforge-mcp
python3.10 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Claude Desktop config

Drop this into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lanforge": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "lanforge_mcp"],
      "env": {
        "LANFORGE_HOST": "localhost",
        "LANFORGE_PORT": "8080",
        "LANFORGE_MOCK": "1",
        "LANFORGE_TIMEOUT_SEC": "10"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. You should see lanforge in the MCP server list and six tools available.

The six tools

| # | Tool | Description | Example prompt | |---|------|-------------|---------------| | 1 | list_ports | List all ports/radios on a resource (read-only). | "What ports are on resource 1?" | | 2 | create_stations | Create N virtual Wi-Fi stations on a radio. Defaults to dry_run=True. | "Create 4 stations on wiphy0 joining 'Candela-Test' with WPA2." | | 3 | start_l3_traffic | Start a Layer-3 cross-connect (traffic flow). Defaults to dry_run=True. | "Start UDP traffic between sta0000 and eth1 at 10–50 Mbps for 60 seconds." | | 4 | get_test_results | Fetch CX stats: throughput, latency, packet loss (read-only). | "How is cx_001 doing?" | | 5 | get_events | Last N events, optionally filtered by severity (read-only). | "Show me the last 20 WARN-or-worse events." | | 6 | diagnose_failure | Composite: CX stats + last 100 events + radio info, with a rule-based summary (read-only). | "Diagnose cx_001 — why is it dropping packets?" |

Mutating tools (#2, #3) default to dry_run=True. They return the exact CLI-JSON payload that would have been POSTed plus a human-readable preview. The LLM must explicitly pass dry_run=False to execute against the box. This is the safety contract for v0.1.

Mock mode

LANFORGE_MOCK=1 (the default) routes all HTTP through httpx.MockTransport and serves recorded JSON fixtures from tests/fixtures/. The fixture shapes match the publicly documented JSON examples on the Candela cookbook. Set LANFORGE_MOCK=0 to talk to a real LANforge GUI on LANFORGE_HOST:LANFORGE_PORT (default localhost:8080).

To record your own fixtures from a live LANforge:

curl -s http://YOUR_LANFORGE:8080/ports/1/1/list > tests/fixtures/ports_list.json
curl -s http://YOUR_LANFORGE:8080/events/last/100 > tests/fixtures/events.json
# ...etc.

Architecture

+----------------+        stdio (MCP)         +----------------+        HTTP+JSON         +-----------------+
|                | <------------------------> |                | <----------------------> |                 |
| Claude Desktop |                            |  lanforge-mcp  |                          | LANforge server |
| / Claude Code  |   tools / resources /      |   (FastMCP)    |   /cli-json/:cmd         |   GUI -httpd    |
|                |       prompts              |                |   /port/:resource/:port  |   port 8080     |
+----------------+                            +----------------+   /events                +-----------------+
                                                      |               /help/:cmd
                                                      | LANFORGE_MOCK=1
                                                      v
                                               tests/fixtures/*.json
                                               (recorded JSON shapes)

Roadmap (v0.2)

Real-hardware verification against a Candela demo lab (no schema changes expected).
Chamber View automation (turntable position, attenuator level).
TR-398 issue 4 prompt library (capacity, range, roaming, multi-station latency).
LANforge Lua/Perl script generation prompt for lanforge-scripts integration.
Optional auth/TLS shim for remote use over a VPN.

Changelog

v0.1.0

Six MCP tools: list_ports, create_stations, start_l3_traffic, get_test_results, get_events, diagnose_failure.
Two resources: lanforge://docs/cli-reference, lanforge://port/{resource}/{port}.
One prompt template: run_wifi_capacity_test.
Async httpx client with MockTransport-backed mock mode (default on).
Pydantic v2 schemas for every tool input/output.
Rule-based diagnostic summaries — no LLM calls.
mypy --strict, ruff clean, pytest ≥ 80% coverage.

Credits

Built with Claude Code in 48 hours. Not affiliated with Candela Technologies.

LANforge platform: https://www.candelatech.com/
Reference scripts: https://github.com/greearb/lanforge-scripts
Model Context Protocol: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/

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