Netutils

mcp-netutils is an MCP server that provides network and domain analysis capabilities for AI assistants. It lets you perform DNS lookups, WHOIS queries, hostname resolution, connectivity tests, TLS certificate analysis, and HTTP endpoint monitoring, all exposed through MCP tooling for easy integration with your editor or other tools.

How to use

Use mcp-netutils to perform practical network and domain checks from within your MCP workflow. You can run it in standard input/output mode for tight editor integrations or enable Server-Sent Events (SSE) mode to access the same tools over HTTP for web-based workflows. The server exposes tools for DNS, WHOIS, hostname resolution, ping, HTTP ping, and TLS certificate checks. Combine multiple options to tailor timeouts and test scopes to your environment, and use a custom DNS-over-HTTPS server if you need to point to a specific resolver.

How to install

Prerequisites: you should have a suitable runtime available on your system depending on how you want to run the MCP server. You can install and run mcp-netutils either via Homebrew for macOS and Linux or via Docker to avoid local binary installation. If you prefer to run directly from a binary, you can obtain it from the release assets.

# Install via Homebrew (macOS and Linux)
brew install patrickdappollonio/tap/mcp-netutils

# Run the server in stdio mode (direct binary usage if you installed the binary)
mcp-netutils

# Run in SSE mode (HTTP server with SSE) on port 3000
mcp-netutils --sse --sse-port=3000

# Run via Docker (stdio mode) with the official image
docker pull ghcr.io/patrickdappollonio/mcp-netutils:latest
docker run --rm ghcr.io/patrickdappollonio/mcp-netutils:latest

# Run via Docker in SSE mode
docker run --rm -p 3000:3000 ghcr.io/patrickdappollonio/mcp-netutils:latest --sse --sse-port 3000

Configuration and startup notes

You can configure the MCP server to point to a custom DNS-over-HTTPS endpoint or a custom WHOIS server when needed. The following editor configuration demonstrates how to reference the binary and provide optional flags. You can uncomment and customize the flags as needed.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "netutils": {
      "command": "mcp-netutils",
      "args": [
        // "--remote-server-address=https://your-custom-doh-server.com/dns-query",
        // "--custom-whois-server=whois.yourdomain.com",
        // "--timeout=5s",
        // "--ping-timeout=5s",
        // "--ping-count=4",
        // "--http-ping-timeout=10s",
        // "--http-ping-count=1",
        // "--tls-timeout=10s"
      ],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Available modes and examples

Run modes are provided to fit your workflow. Use the standard stdio mode for editor integrations, or enable SSE mode to expose the same MCP tools over HTTP for web-based tooling.

# Standard input/output mode for editors
mcp-netutils

# SSE mode for HTTP-based integrations
mcp-netutils --sse --sse-port=3000

Notes on tools and capabilities

mcp-netutils provides a set of tools to cover common network and domain tasks. These include local DNS queries, remote DNS-over-HTTPS queries, WHOIS lookups, hostname resolution, ICMP ping, HTTP ping with detailed timing, and TLS certificate checks. You can run multiple checks in sequence or combine individual tool invocations as part of broader MCP workflows.

Security and reliability tips

Ensure your DNS-over-HTTPS endpoints are trusted and accessible from your environment. When using custom servers, monitor response times and error rates to avoid introducing delays into your MCP workflows. If you enable SSE, protect access to the HTTP endpoint and consider using appropriate authentication or network controls in your deployment.

Available tools

local_dns_query

Perform DNS queries against the local resolver configured by the operating system.

remote_dns_query

Query remote DNS-over-HTTPS servers (primary Cloudflare with Google as fallback) for DNS records.

whois_query

Fetch WHOIS information for domain registrations.

resolve_hostname

Resolve a hostname to its IPv4/IPv6 addresses using the system resolver.

ping

Send ICMP echo requests to measure connectivity and latency.

http_ping

Send HTTP requests to endpoints and collect detailed timing, including DNS, connect, TLS, and TTFB.

tls_certificate_check

Inspect TLS certificates for validity, expiration, and chain details.