FortiGate MCP Server - A comprehensive Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for managing FortiGate devices. This project provides programmatic access to FortiGate devices and enables integration with MCP-compatible clients such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor.
FortiGate MCP Server exposes 33 unique tools, 61 total tool-surface registrations across stdio (30) and HTTP (31) transports; 3 create-tools have transport-specific parameter shapes. Covered areas:
- Device Management: Add, remove, and test connections to FortiGate devices
- Firewall Management: List, create, update, and delete firewall rules
- Network Management: Manage address and service objects
- Routing Management: Manage static routes and interfaces
- Virtual IP Management: Manage virtual IPs (VIP/DNAT)
- HTTP Transport: MCP protocol over HTTP using FastMCP
- Docker Support: Easy installation and deployment
- MCP Client Integration: Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible clients
- Python 3.11+
uvpackage manager (recommended) orpip- Access to FortiGate device
- API token or username/password
git clone https://github.com/alpadalar/fortigate-mcp-server.git
cd fortigate-mcp-server# Using uv (recommended) - installs the locked, reproducible dependency set
uv sync --locked
# Or using pip
pip install -e .Create your local config from the committed example (config/config.json is gitignored and does
not exist on a fresh clone):
cp config/config.example.json config/config.jsonThen edit config/config.json:
{
"server": {
"allow_writes": false
},
"fortigate": {
"devices": {
"default": {
"host": "192.168.1.1",
"port": 443,
"username": "admin",
"password": "your_password",
"api_token": "your-api-token",
"vdom": "root",
"verify_ssl": true,
"timeout": 30
}
}
},
"logging": {
"level": "INFO",
"file": "./logs/fortigate_mcp.log"
}
}# Start with script
./start_http_server.sh
# Or manually
uv run python -m src.fortigate_mcp.server_http \
--host 127.0.0.1 \
--port 8814 \
--path /fortigate-mcp \
--config config/config.jsonUse --host 0.0.0.0 only if you need access from other machines on the network AND have
auth.require_auth=true configured in config/config.json; otherwise keep 127.0.0.1 —
unauthenticated HTTP should never bind wider than loopback.
# Build and start
docker-compose up -d
# View logs
docker-compose logs -f fortigate-mcp-serverThe compose file publishes port 8814 on loopback only (127.0.0.1:8814:8814), so the server is
reachable solely from the Docker host itself. To expose it beyond 127.0.0.1, first set
auth.require_auth=true in config/config.json, then widen the ports: mapping deliberately —
see SECURITY.md.
FortiGate MCP Server works with any MCP-compatible client. Verified, ready-to-use config examples are provided for Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor:
examples/claude_desktop_config.stdio.json— Claude Desktop, stdio transport (recommended)examples/claude_desktop_config.http.json— Claude Desktop, HTTP transport via themcp-remotebridgeexamples/claude_code_mcp.json— Claude Code project-scope.mcp.json(stdio and HTTP entries)examples/cursor_mcp_config.json— Cursor MCP configuration
Every stdio example in this project launches the server via uv run --directory <path> python -m src.fortigate_mcp.server instead of a bare python -m ... command. This matters because
GUI-launched MCP clients (like Claude Desktop) commonly start commands from a directory other than
the repo root — the explicit --directory flag makes the invocation working-directory
independent, so it keeps working regardless of where the client process happens to start from.
Add a project-scope .mcp.json at your repository root (see
examples/claude_code_mcp.json for the full file, including the HTTP entry):
{
"mcpServers": {
"fortigate-mcp-stdio": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "uv",
"args": ["run", "--directory", "${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}", "python", "-m", "src.fortigate_mcp.server"],
"env": {
"FORTIGATE_MCP_CONFIG": "${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}/config/config.json"
}
}
}
}Or register the HTTP transport via the Claude Code CLI:
claude mcp add --transport http fortigate-mcp http://127.0.0.1:8814/fortigate-mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer <token>"--header is only needed when auth.require_auth=true is set in config/config.json.
Claude Desktop's native config schema validates stdio servers only. Use
examples/claude_desktop_config.stdio.json for the stdio transport (recommended). For the HTTP
transport, examples/claude_desktop_config.http.json bridges to this server through the
community mcp-remote npm package (npx -y mcp-remote ...) — this package is not vetted or
installed by this project; inspect it yourself before running it, since npx fetches and
executes third-party code on your behalf.
See examples/cursor_mcp_config.json for a working stdio configuration.
list_devices- List registered devicesget_device_status- Get device statustest_device_connection- Test connectionadd_device- Add new deviceremove_device- Remove devicediscover_vdoms- Discover VDOMs
list_firewall_policies- List firewall rulescreate_firewall_policy- Create new ruleupdate_firewall_policy- Update ruledelete_firewall_policy- Delete rule
list_address_objects- List address objectscreate_address_object- Create address objectlist_service_objects- List service objectscreate_service_object- Create service object
list_virtual_ips- List virtual IPscreate_virtual_ip- Create virtual IPupdate_virtual_ip- Update virtual IPget_virtual_ip_detail- Get virtual IP detaildelete_virtual_ip- Delete virtual IP
list_static_routes- List static routescreate_static_route- Create static routeupdate_static_route- Update static routedelete_static_route- Delete static routeget_static_route_detail- Get static route detailget_routing_table- Get routing tablelist_interfaces- List interfacesget_interface_status- Get interface status
health- Health checktest_connection- Connection testget_schema_info- Schema information
# One-time setup: test dependencies (pytest, pytest-cov, respx, pyyaml) live in the
# dev/test extras — the plain `uv sync --locked` from the install step does not install them
uv sync --locked --all-extras
# Quick run with coverage disabled (a bare -q only reduces verbosity;
# without --no-cov the coverage gate from pyproject.toml addopts still runs)
uv run pytest -q --no-cov
# Full suite with coverage (--cov-fail-under=67 enforced per pyproject.toml)
uv run pytest
# Run specific test files
uv run pytest tests/test_device_manager.py
uv run pytest tests/test_fortigate_api.py
uv run pytest tests/test_tools.py
# Verbose output
uv run pytest -v
# Detailed error information
uv run pytest --tb=long- Unit Tests: Test individual components and functions
- Coverage: Code coverage reporting with HTML output
The /health route lives at the app root, is exempt from Bearer-token auth, and works with
plain curl:
# Liveness probe
curl http://127.0.0.1:8814/healthThe MCP protocol itself cannot be exercised with a bare curl POST: the streamable-HTTP
transport requires an initialize handshake, session management, and tools/call framing.
Use a real MCP client for protocol-level testing — for example fastmcp.Client:
uv run python - <<'PY'
import asyncio
from fastmcp import Client
async def main():
# Trailing slash matches the mount convention; the non-slash form 307-redirects
async with Client("http://127.0.0.1:8814/fortigate-mcp/") as client:
tools = await client.list_tools()
print(f"{len(tools)} tools registered")
result = await client.call_tool("health", {})
print(result.content[0].text)
asyncio.run(main())
PYAlternatively, bridge with npx -y mcp-remote http://127.0.0.1:8814/fortigate-mcp or use the
MCP Inspector.
fortigate-mcp-server/
├── src/
│ └── fortigate_mcp/
│ ├── __init__.py
│ ├── server.py # STDIO MCP server
│ ├── server_http.py # HTTP MCP server
│ ├── config/ # Configuration management
│ ├── core/ # Core components
│ ├── tools/ # MCP tools
│ └── formatting/ # Response formatting
├── config/
│ ├── config.json # Main configuration (gitignored, created from example)
│ └── config.example.json # Example configuration
├── examples/
│ ├── claude_desktop_config.stdio.json # Claude Desktop, stdio transport
│ ├── claude_desktop_config.http.json # Claude Desktop, HTTP via mcp-remote
│ ├── claude_code_mcp.json # Claude Code .mcp.json
│ └── cursor_mcp_config.json # Cursor MCP config
├── logs/ # Log files
├── tests/ # Test files
├── docker-compose.yml # Docker compose
├── Dockerfile # Docker image
├── start_server.sh # STDIO startup script
├── start_http_server.sh # HTTP startup script
└── README.md # This file
-
Connection Error
- Ensure FortiGate device is accessible
- Verify API token or username/password
- If you see SSL certificate errors, install the FortiGate device's certificate as trusted (or
replace it with a CA-signed certificate) — do not disable certificate verification.
verify_ssldefaults totrueand must staytrue; see SECURITY.md for the rationale.
-
Port Conflict
- Ensure port 8814 is available
- Change port using
--portparameter
-
Configuration Error
- Ensure
config.jsonis properly formatted - Check JSON syntax
- Ensure
-
MCP Client Connection Issue
- Ensure the server is running
- Verify the config file path and URL are correct
- Restart the MCP client (Claude Desktop / Claude Code / Cursor)
Check logs using:
# HTTP server logs
tail -f logs/fortigate_mcp.log
# Docker logs
docker-compose logs -f fortigate-mcp-server-
Write protection (default: read-only)
- Write and destructive tools are rejected unless explicitly enabled via
server.allow_writes: truein config, or theFORTIGATE_MCP_ALLOW_WRITES=1environment variable
- Write and destructive tools are rejected unless explicitly enabled via
-
TLS certificate verification (default: on)
- Config-loaded devices verify TLS certificates by default (
verify_ssl: true)
- Config-loaded devices verify TLS certificates by default (
-
Bearer-token authentication (optional, default: off)
- Available via
auth.require_auth/auth.api_tokens; unauthenticated by default — run only on trusted networks when disabled
- Available via
-
Secret redaction
- API tokens and passwords are stored as
SecretStrand are never written to logs
- API tokens and passwords are stored as
- Rate limiting is parsed from config but not enforced — do not rely on it as a working control.
- Unauthenticated HTTP (the default) should bind to
127.0.0.1(loopback) only; binding to0.0.0.0for wider network access requires enabling Bearer auth (auth.require_auth=true) plus network-level controls (firewall rules, VPN, reverse-proxy allowlists).
See SECURITY.md for the full threat model and known limitations.
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature) - Commit your changes (
git commit -m 'Add amazing feature') - Push to the branch (
git push origin feature/amazing-feature) - Open a Pull Request
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.
- FastMCP - For MCP HTTP transport
- FortiGate API - For FortiGate integration
For issues:
- Use the Issues page
- Check the documentation
- Review the logs
Note: This project has been tested with FortiGate devices. Please perform comprehensive testing before using in production.