Local AI Meets Netmiko: Build Your Own Network Agent
A step-by-step build of a local AI agent that talks to your network. Ollama runs the model, Netmiko handles SSH, and a simple Python loop ties it together, with the gotchas I hit along the way.
root@nexthop:~$ id szymon
user — Szymon Czarnecki
bio — Network engineer by day, homelabber, flight simmer and gamer by night. I write about network automation, Python, and self-hosted infrastructure - turning CLI habits into code, one script at a time. Also occasionally found at 35,000ft in MSFS.
loc — Southampton, Hampshire
BFD, BGP and Dual ISP - Building Resilient WAN Connectivity on Palo Alto
How to add dual ISP failover to Palo Alto -path monitoring, AS prepend for BGP route preference, and BFD to reduce reconvergence from 90 seconds to sub-second.
Site-to-Site BGP Over IPSec on Palo Alto - From Tunnel to Full Routing
How to establish an IPSec tunnel between two Palo Alto firewalls and bring up BGP over the VTI - with full route validation and end-to-end connectivity between sites.
VRFs, OSPF and Security Zones - Building a Multi-Site Foundation on Palo Alto
How to use VRFs on your core switch to achieve per-zone logical separation on Palo Alto.
Part 4 - Pushing Config with Nornir: Three Ways to Make Changes
Three ways to push config with Nornir - from a simple list of commands, to a config file, to a fully dynamic Jinja2 template with per-device variables.
Part 3 - From Parsed Data to Reports and Backups with Nornir
Learn how to process parsed network data and generate reports and backups using Nornir automation in Python.
Part 2 - Parsing Real Data with Textfsm
Learn how to parse raw network device output into structured data using TextFSM and Nornir. Part 2 of the Nornir Network Discovery series.
Part 1 - From zero to querying network devices
A practical introduction to Nornir — the Python automation framework that makes querying network devices faster, cleaner and more scalable than plain Netmiko.
How to Expose a Local Server to the Internet with Tailscale and Caddy
No static IP? No problem. Learn how to expose a locally hosted service to the internet using Tailscale and a cheap VPS — no port forwarding, no exposed home network.
Why I would never pay an ISP for a static IP
Are you trying to host a game server to play with your friends, or have you just started a self-host