Cisco backup

Skill bradmccloskey/claude-cisco-skills/cisco-backup

Generate Python scripts for Cisco device backup, inventory collection, and configuration management. Use when the user wants to back up configs, collect inventory, diff configurations, or track config changes.From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add bradmccloskey/claude-cisco-skills --skill cisco-backup

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

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SKILL.md

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Cisco Backup & Inventory Scripts

Write Python scripts for device backup and inventory management. Follow these standards:

Capabilities

Configuration Backup

Pull running-config and startup-config via SSH
Save configs with timestamped filenames
Organize by device hostname and date
Support incremental backups (skip if unchanged)
Diff current vs previous backup and alert on changes

Inventory Collection

Collect show version, show inventory, show module
Parse hardware model, serial numbers, software version, uptime
Build CSV/JSON inventory reports
Track software versions across the network for compliance

Config Diff & Compliance

Diff running vs startup config
Diff running config vs golden template
Flag non-compliant settings (e.g., missing NTP, wrong SNMP community)
Generate remediation commands

Libraries to Use

netmiko for SSH connections
napalm for get_config() and get_facts()
difflib for config comparison
concurrent.futures for parallel device connections
csv / openpyxl for inventory reports
os / pathlib for file management
datetime for timestamps

Directory Structure for Backups

backups/
  ├── 2024-01-15/
  │   ├── R1_running.cfg
  │   ├── R1_startup.cfg
  │   ├── SW1_running.cfg
  │   └── ...
  └── 2024-01-16/
      └── ...

Device Inventory Format (YAML input)

devices:
  - hostname: R1
    host: 192.168.1.1
    device_type: cisco_ios
    username: admin
    # password from env var or vault
  - hostname: SW1
    host: 192.168.1.2
    device_type: cisco_ios

Security Requirements

NEVER hardcode passwords in scripts
Use environment variables, .env files (gitignored), or vault integration
Support SSH key authentication
Mask credentials in log output

What ships with it

Read from the repository

Just SKILL.md. No reference files, no scripts.