Network Monitor MCP Server

Network Monitor MCP Server is an MCP server that connects Claude to local network interfaces for real-time packet capture and traffic inspection. Network engineers, security analysts, and systems administrators use this server to observe active network communication directly through conversational AI interfaces. By interfacing with libpcap, the server inspects packet streams across standard protocols including TCP, UDP, DNS, and HTTP or HTTPS. It provides security-focused capabilities such as identifying port scanning routines, flagging suspicious DNS queries, surfacing potential data exfiltration attempts, and calculating traffic statistics across active interfaces like WiFi. Users invoke tools to start and stop packet captures, query filtered logs by port or protocol, and extract security metrics for live incident investigation. Operating this tool requires elevated host privileges to read raw network sockets, allowing technical teams to run live diagnostic sessions and review environmental anomalies without switching back and forth between disparate command-line packet sniffing utilities.

Category: Monitoring & Observability

Tags: monitoring, network, packet-analysis, security, traffic-analysis

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How to install and configure Network Monitor MCP Server

1. Install libpcap development headers using brew install libpcap on macOS, or sudo apt-get install libpcap-dev on Ubuntu and Debian. 2. Clone the repository and build the binary: git clone https://github.com/skapa-xyz/network-monitor-mcp.git cd network-monitor-mcp go mod download go build -o network-monitor-mcp 3. Because packet capture requires root permissions, configure non-interactive execution via sudo visudo if running locally, or configure a dedicated service. 4. Open your Claude Desktop configuration file at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json and add the server definition: { "mcpServers": { "network-monitor": { "command": "/path/to/network-monitor-mcp" } } } 5. Restart Claude Desktop to activate the packet capture tools.

What you can do with Network Monitor MCP Server

• Monitor network interfaces in real time by specifying interface names and BPF filters using the capture_start and capture_stop tools. - Inspect DNS resolution queries and active HTTPS sessions across local network devices to trace unexpected domain lookups. - Detect potential port scanning activities and connection anomalies across local network segments using the get_suspicious analysis tool. - Generate traffic volume and connection summaries across TCP and UDP sockets using the analyze_traffic command inside Claude.

Key facts

• https://github.com/skapa-xyz/network-monitor-mcp
• Monitoring & Observability, Security & Compliance
• monitoring, network, packet-analysis, security, traffic-analysis

Part of MCP Servers

What can Network Monitor MCP Server do?

Network Monitor MCP Server enables Model Context Protocol clients to capture live network traffic, inspect packets across various network protocols, and review security anomalies. It provides tools for starting and stopping packet captures on specific interfaces, retrieving filtered packet logs for protocols such as DNS or HTTP, computing connection statistics, and detecting suspicious activities like port scanning or unauthorized exfiltration attempts.

How do I install Network Monitor MCP Server?

Installation requires Go 1.21 or higher and libpcap development headers installed on your operating system. Clone the repository from GitHub, fetch dependencies using go mod download, and compile the binary with go build. Because packet sniffing requires elevated operating system privileges, the executable must be granted root access or configured with appropriate capabilities to access network interfaces.

Which MCP clients work with Network Monitor MCP Server?

The server works with Claude Desktop and any standard client implementing the Model Context Protocol that can launch local executable processes. Because the binary requires elevated permissions to perform packet capture, running it alongside desktop clients requires configuring appropriate system permissions, such as sudoers access or dedicated system service wrappers, to execute the monitoring binary.

Why does Network Monitor MCP Server require root permissions?

Capturing raw network packets from network interfaces like en0 or wlan0 relies on libpcap, which interfaces directly with kernel network taps. Operating systems restrict raw packet capture to root or privileged administrative accounts to protect network privacy and sensitive data. The server therefore requires elevated permissions to access these underlying network sockets.