fortigate-ops

FortiGate Operations — the device plane

MCP Server

• Server: fortinet-mcp (NetClaw-authored, spec 080 / roadmap R3)
• Command: $FORTINET_MCP_CMD
• Transport: stdio · FortiOS REST API, bearer token
• Requires: FORTIGATE_HOST, FORTIGATE_API_TOKEN
• Mode: read-only — this skill has no write path at all

The distinction this skill exists to protect

A FortiGate knows what it is doing. It does not know what it was supposed to do.

Question	Plane	Skill
"Is the tunnel up? What's in the routing table?"	device	this skill
"What policy is intended across the estate?"	manager	fortimanager-ops
"Has anything ever matched this rule?"	analyzer	fortianalyzer-ops
"Run a raw FortiOS CLI command"	CLI	multivendor-raw-cli (spec 076)

If a device does not answer, this skill reports that it did not answer. It never substitutes FortiManager's intended configuration as though it were observed state — that would turn "the box is unreachable" into a confident, wrong description of a box nobody can see.

Tools (6, all read-only)

Tool	What it answers
fgt_system_status	Hostname, serial, version, HA mode, which member answered
fgt_list_interfaces	Interfaces: link, addressing, speed, error counters, per VDOM
fgt_get_routes	Routing table as observed, optional protocol filter
fgt_vpn_tunnels	IPsec tunnels — phase 1 and phase 2 separately
fgt_get_policies	Firewall policy as running on the device
fgt_compare_with_manager	Divergence between intent and observed state

Phase 1 and phase 2 are reported separately, always

This is the single most important behaviour here.

A tunnel with phase 1 up and phase 2 down is neither "up" nor "down". It is a specific and common fault — usually a proxy-ID or selector mismatch — where IKE negotiated fine and no traffic can actually pass. Collapsing the two into one status field destroys the only signal that distinguishes it from a healthy tunnel or a dead one.

fgt_vpn_tunnels therefore returns phase1_status, phase2_status, and phase2_selectors[] per selector pair, because one down selector out of five is still a fault worth naming.

Every response carries its plane and scope

{ "plane": "device", "scope": {"device": "FGVMEVS9GWUAOMBD", "vdom": "root"},
  "source": "...", "outcome": "ok", "data": {...}, "notes": [] }

Scope is mandatory. A figure without its VDOM is ambiguous on a multi-VDOM unit, so a response that cannot name its scope is returned as an error rather than as an unqualified result.

Workflow: "is the tunnel up?"

1. fgt_vpn_tunnels — read both phases.
2. Phase 1 down → IKE/peer/PSK/routing problem. Check fgt_get_routes for a path to the remote gateway.
3. Phase 1 up, phase 2 down → selector/proxy-ID mismatch. Inspect phase2_selectors[] for which pair failed.
4. Both up but no traffic → not a tunnel problem. Move to policy (fgt_get_policies) or to the analyzer plane for whether anything matched.

Workflow: out-of-band change detection

1. fgt_compare_with_manager with the ADOM and package.
2. only_in_device → rules on the box that are absent from the policy package. Someone changed the firewall directly. This is the highest-value finding this skill produces and it is invisible from either plane alone.
3. only_in_manager → package not installed since those rules were added.
4. If either plane is unreachable, the tool refuses to compare and names the plane that failed. A half-comparison would be worse than none.

Notes on evaluation-licensed labs

A FortiGate-VM evaluation licence caps the unit at 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 3 interfaces, 3 routes and 3 firewall policies. A small ruleset on such a device is a lab limit, not the estate's real posture — fgt_get_policies says so in its notes.

An unlicensed FortiGate refuses REST authentication entirely: every request returns 401 regardless of token validity, trusthost, or admin profile. If every call fails with auth_expired, check get system status for License Status: Valid before suspecting the token.

Integration with other skills

Skill	How they compose
fortimanager-ops	The intent this device is measured against
fortianalyzer-ops	Whether traffic actually matched what is configured here
fwrule-analyzer	Feed fgt_get_policies output to its FortiOS parser
multivendor-raw-cli	Raw CLI (spec 076). Use when you need command output, not structure
pyats-troubleshoot	Correlate firewall path findings with routing/device state elsewhere
gait-session-tracking	Every operation here is GAIT-audited automatically

Important rules

• Read-only. This skill cannot change a FortiGate. Policy changes go through fortimanager-ops and its two gates.
• Never report phase 1 and phase 2 as one status.
• Never fill an unreachable device's silence with manager data.
• Always carry the VDOM.