Installing the App in Nautobot

This page tells you how to install and configure the app in your Nautobot environment.

Prerequisites

• The app works with Nautobot 3.1.0 and later.
• Supported databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL.

Note

For the full compatibility matrix and the deprecation policy, read the dedicated page.

Access Requirements

The app needs no external access. The Discover AI Models Job needs outbound HTTPS access from the Nautobot worker to each provider endpoint that you configure. The endpoint must give GET /v1/models.

The MCP Server Discovery Job needs outbound HTTPS access to each MCP server that you register.

Install Guide

Note

You can install an app from the Python Package Index or from a local file. For more information, read the Nautobot documentation. The pip package name for this app is nautobot-ai-models.

The app is a Python package on PyPI. Install it with pip:

pip install nautobot-ai-models

To install the app again on each future upgrade, list the package in local_requirements.txt in the Nautobot root directory, beside requirements.txt. Create the file if it does not exist:

echo nautobot-ai-models >> local_requirements.txt

Next, enable the app in your Nautobot configuration. Make these two changes in nautobot_config.py:

• Add "nautobot_ai_models" to the PLUGINS list.
• Add a "nautobot_ai_models" dictionary to PLUGINS_CONFIG if you want to change a default.

PLUGINS = ["nautobot_ai_models"]

PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "nautobot_ai_models": {},
}

Then run the post-upgrade command. It applies the migrations and clears the cache:

nautobot-server post_upgrade

Then restart the Nautobot services. These can include:

• Nautobot
• Nautobot Workers
• Nautobot Scheduler

sudo systemctl restart nautobot nautobot-worker nautobot-scheduler

App Configuration

The app needs no settings. Add it to PLUGINS and leave its PLUGINS_CONFIG entry empty.

Configure a provider endpoint through a Nautobot External Integration, not through a setting. See External Interactions.

Optional settings

Two optional settings change what an MCP Server Discovery run puts on offer. Both defaults keep the behavior of an existing deployment, so you do not have to set either one.

Setting	Default	What it does
new_tools_enabled	True	Whether a newly discovered MCP tool arrives switched on. Set it to False, and a tool arrives with enabled clear. A person then turns the tool on.
disable_on_definition_change	False	Whether discovery clears enabled on a tool whose definition changed since the last read. Set it to True, and such a tool comes back off. It keeps its schemas and its review history.

PLUGINS_CONFIG = {
    "nautobot_ai_models": {
        "new_tools_enabled": False,
        "disable_on_definition_change": True,
    },
}

Both settings are registry policy, not call policy. That is why they live here. A consuming app can refuse to call a tool, but it cannot stop a second consuming app from calling the same tool.

WARNING: A server that advertises forty tools puts forty tools on offer to each consuming app, before a person reads one description. In the prompt of an agent, the description of a tool is its meaning. Set new_tools_enabled to False before you register such a server.

Set disable_on_definition_change to True if you want the app to act on a change of contract instead of only reporting it. See MCP Tool.