vmware-pilot

VMware Pilot

Disclaimer: This is a community-maintained open-source project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by VMware, Inc. or Broadcom Inc. "VMware" is a trademark of Broadcom. Source code is publicly auditable at github.com/vmware-skills/VMware-Pilot under the MIT license.

Multi-step workflow orchestration for VMware MCP skills — design, approve, execute, rollback.

Companion Skills: vmware-aiops (VM operations) | vmware-monitor (monitoring) | vmware-nsx (networking) | vmware-aria (metrics/alerts) | vmware-avi (load balancing/AKO)

What This Skill Does

Quick Install

uv tool install vmware-pilot
vmware-pilot mcp          # start the MCP server (stdio)

When to Use This Skill

Related Skills — Skill Routing

Common Workflows

1. Design a Custom Workflow (Interactive)

User: "I need to set up a new app environment with networking and VMs"

AI calls: get_skill_catalog()          → see available tools
AI calls: design_workflow(goal="...")   → create draft
AI calls: update_draft(id, steps=[...]) → fill in steps
User reviews and confirms
AI calls: confirm_draft(id, save_as_template=True)
AI calls: run_workflow(id)             → execute with approval gates

2. Clone-and-Test (Built-in Template)

AI calls: plan_workflow("clone_and_test", {
    target_vm: "db01",
    change_spec: {memory_mb: 32768},
    target: "vcenter-prod"
})
AI calls: run_workflow(workflow_id)
→ Clone → Apply → Monitor → [Approval Gate] → Commit → Cleanup

3. Batch Operations with Approval

AI calls: plan_workflow("plan_and_approve", {
    operations: [
        {action: "power_off", vm_name: "db01"},
        {action: "revert_snapshot", vm_name: "db01", snapshot_name: "baseline"},
        {action: "power_on", vm_name: "db01"}
    ]
})
→ Create Plan → [Approval Gate] → Execute Plan (with auto-rollback on failure)

4. Rolling Maintenance with AVI Drain

Drain traffic from a pool member via AVI, patch the server, then restore traffic:

1. vmware-avi pool disable       # drain traffic from pool member
2. vmware-avi analytics                     # verify drain complete (0 active connections)
3. vmware-aiops vm guest-exec  --cmd "apt-get upgrade -y"   # patch the server
4. vmware-avi pool enable         # restore traffic to pool member
5. vmware-avi pool members                # verify health status is green

5. AKO-Aware Application Deployment

Deploy a backend VM, create a K8s namespace, and wire up AKO Ingress to the AVI Controller:

1. vmware-aiops deploy ova  --name   # deploy backend VM
2. vmware-vks namespace create              # create K8s namespace
3. kubectl apply -f ingress.yaml                # create Ingress with AKO annotations
4. vmware-avi ako ingress check             # validate AKO annotations are correct
5. vmware-avi ako sync status                   # verify VS created on AVI Controller

Dispatch Contract (Important)

Pilot is a Dispatcher, not an Executor. It generates plans, tracks state, gates on approvals — it does NOT call companion skills' MCP tools itself. The calling AI agent is responsible for invoking vmware-aiops::vm_clone etc. when pilot's run_workflow returns a step description.

This is intentional v2-style architecture: pilot's context stays small, state is always on disk, and there are no persistent agent threads. Full contract details: see references/integration-patterns.md.

get_skill_catalog is a curated design aid, not a whitelist. It surfaces 69 hand-picked building blocks across 8 skills — a deliberate subset of what those skills expose (aiops alone has 49 tools; the catalog lists 18). A step's skill field is a free-form string handed to the calling agent, so a workflow may name any companion skill, including ones the catalog does not list — pilot itself (pilot) is used that way by built-in templates for approval gates. Use the catalog for inspiration; consult the target skill's own SKILL.md for its full tool surface.

MCP Tools (13 — 4 read, 9 write/control)

Built-in Templates (15)

The five most-used:

Full list: clone_and_test, incident_response, investigate_alert, plan_and_approve, compliance_scan, network_segment_setup, vks_cluster_deploy, rolling_restart, capacity_expansion, disaster_recovery, patch_deployment, storage_expansion, baseline_capture, baseline_audit, baseline_remediate. See references/templates.md for full details.

Custom Templates

Drop YAML files in ~/.vmware/workflows/ — pilot auto-loads them.

# ~/.vmware/workflows/restart_cluster.yaml
name: restart_cluster
description: Rolling restart of database cluster
steps:
  - action: check_health
    skill: monitor
    tool: get_alarms
    params:
      target: "{{target}}"
  - action: stop_replica
    skill: aiops
    tool: vm_power_off
    params:
      vm_name: "{{replica_vm}}"
    rollback_tool: vm_power_on
    rollback_params:
      vm_name: "{{replica_vm}}"
  - action: require_approval
    skill: pilot
    tool: approve
    params:
      message: "Replica stopped. Proceed?"
  - action: restart_primary
    skill: aiops
    tool: vm_power_off
    params:
      vm_name: "{{primary_vm}}"

Usage Mode

Note: every workflow operation — design, plan, run, approve, rollback — is MCP-only. The vmware-pilot CLI exists to launch the server and report its version, nothing more. Other skills in the family (aiops, monitor, avi, etc.) offer full CLI and MCP modes.

CLI Quick Reference

The CLI is a launcher, not a second interface to workflows:

vmware-pilot mcp        # start the MCP server (stdio)
vmware-pilot version    # print installed version
vmware-pilot --help

# Validate a custom workflow YAML before loading
python3 scripts/validate_workflow.py ~/.vmware/workflows/my_workflow.yaml

# List available tools across all skills (design helper)
python3 scripts/list_available_tools.py          # all skills
python3 scripts/list_available_tools.py aiops    # specific skill
python3 scripts/list_available_tools.py --json   # JSON output

# View audit logs (via vmware-policy)
vmware-audit log --last 20
vmware-audit log --status denied

Full CLI reference for companion skills: see references/cli-reference.md

Troubleshooting

Workflow stuck in "awaiting_approval"

Call approve(workflow_id) with the correct workflow ID to continue, or rollback(workflow_id) to abort. If the MCP session was lost, reconnect and call get_workflow_status(workflow_id) to see the current state -- workflows persist in SQLite and survive restarts.

"Unknown workflow type" error from plan_workflow

The template name is case-sensitive. Use list_workflows() to see all available built-in and custom template names. Custom templates must be valid YAML in ~/.vmware/workflows/.

Custom YAML template not appearing

1. Verify the file is in ~/.vmware/workflows/ with a .yaml extension
2. Check YAML syntax -- run python3 scripts/validate_workflow.py to validate
3. Template names must be unique -- a custom template cannot shadow a built-in name

Rollback fails on some steps

Not all steps are reversible. Steps without rollback_tool defined are skipped during rollback. Pilot uses best-effort rollback: if one rollback step fails, it continues with remaining steps and reports which succeeded and which failed.

"Workflow cannot be run" state error

A workflow can only be run from pending or running states. If it is in draft, call confirm_draft() first. If it is in completed or failed, create a new workflow -- completed workflows cannot be re-run.

vmware-policy dependency missing

Pilot requires vmware-policy for the @vmware_tool decorator and audit logging. It is declared as a dependency in pyproject.toml and should install automatically. If missing, run pip install vmware-policy or reinstall pilot.

Setup

No vCenter credentials needed — pilot orchestrates other skills that handle connections.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vmware-pilot": {
      "command": "vmware-pilot",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Fallback: {"command": "uvx", "args": ["--from", "vmware-pilot", "vmware-pilot-mcp"]} also works, but uvx re-resolves the package against PyPI on every start and fails behind a TLS-inspecting corporate proxy (invalid peer certificate: UnknownIssuer). The installed entry point above touches the network zero times; set UV_NATIVE_TLS=true if you must use uvx.

Audit & Safety

All operations are automatically audited via vmware-policy (@vmware_tool decorator):

• Every tool call logged to ~/.vmware/audit.db (SQLite, framework-agnostic)
• Policy rules enforced via ~/.vmware/rules.yaml (deny rules, maintenance windows, risk levels)
• Risk classification: each tool tagged as low/medium/high/critical
• Environment scoping: policy rules can scope by environment (an optional label an opt-in deny rule may match), and skills with a config may declare environment: per target. Pilot has no targets of its own and reports a constant local — its writes go to the local workflow DB, never to a VMware estate. Pilot's approval gate is a step in its own workflow: it pauses before the agent dispatches a destructive step, and the target skill then applies its own policy rules when the step runs
• View recent operations: vmware-audit log --last 20
• View denied operations: vmware-audit log --status denied

vmware-policy is automatically installed as a dependency — no manual setup needed.

License

MIT