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

Capability	Description
Workflow Design	Natural language goal → AI designs steps from the get_skill_catalog building-block list (69 curated tools across 8 skills)
Approval Gates	Pause execution for human review before destructive operations
State Persistence	SQLite-backed, survives restarts, supports resume from checkpoint
Rollback	Reverse completed steps in order if workflow fails
Custom Templates	Save workflows as YAML for reuse, hot-reload without restart
Compliance Scans	Read-only health/capacity/anomaly checks across skills

Quick Install

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

When to Use This Skill

Scenario	Use Pilot?	Why
"Clone VM, test, then apply to prod"	Yes	Multi-step + approval
"Power on a VM"	No, use aiops	Single operation
"Set up app network + firewall + VMs"	Yes	Cross-skill orchestration
"Check cluster health"	No, use monitor/aria	Single read-only query
"Diagnose and fix an alert"	Yes	incident_response template
"Run compliance check"	Yes	compliance_scan template
"Drain server, patch, restore traffic"	Yes	Cross-skill: avi drain + aiops patch
"Deploy app with AKO ingress"	Yes	Cross-skill: aiops + vks + avi
"Check pool member health"	No, use avi	Single read-only query

Related Skills — Skill Routing

User Intent	Recommended Skill
VM lifecycle (power, clone, deploy)	vmware-aiops (uv tool install vmware-aiops)
Read-only monitoring	vmware-monitor (uv tool install vmware-monitor)
NSX networking (segments, gateways, NAT)	vmware-nsx (uv tool install vmware-nsx-mgmt)
NSX security (DFW, groups)	vmware-nsx-security (uv tool install vmware-nsx-security)
Aria metrics/alerts/capacity	vmware-aria (uv tool install vmware-aria)
Tanzu Kubernetes (Supervisor/TKC)	vmware-vks (uv tool install vmware-vks)
Storage (iSCSI, vSAN, datastores)	vmware-storage (uv tool install vmware-storage)
Load balancing, VS, pool, AKO	vmware-avi (uv tool install vmware-avi)
Audit log query	vmware-policy (vmware-audit CLI)
Multi-step orchestration	vmware-pilot (this skill)

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 <pool> <server>     # drain traffic from pool member
2. vmware-avi analytics <vs>                    # verify drain complete (0 active connections)
3. vmware-aiops vm guest-exec <vm> --cmd "apt-get upgrade -y"   # patch the server
4. vmware-avi pool enable <pool> <server>       # restore traffic to pool member
5. vmware-avi pool members <pool>               # 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 <image> --name <vm>  # deploy backend VM
2. vmware-vks namespace create <ns>             # create K8s namespace
3. kubectl apply -f ingress.yaml                # create Ingress with AKO annotations
4. vmware-avi ako ingress check <ns>            # 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)

Category	Tool	Risk	Description
Discovery	get_skill_catalog	low	Available skills and tools for design
	list_workflows	low	Built-in + custom templates
Design	design_workflow	low	Natural language → draft
	update_draft	medium	Edit draft steps
	confirm_draft	medium	Finalize draft → ready to execute
Execute	plan_workflow	medium	Create from template
	create_workflow	medium	One-step custom creation
	review_workflow	low	Structural sanity check before execution (approved | needs_revision)
	run_workflow	medium	Execute next checkpoint (agent dispatches each step)
Control	approve	high	Human approval to continue
	cancel_workflow	high	Cancel a workflow (approval rejected / unsafe) → terminal CANCELLED, can't be run
	rollback	high	Reverse completed steps
	get_workflow_status	low	State + audit log

Built-in Templates (15)

The five most-used:

Template	Steps	Approval	Skills Used
clone_and_test	6	Yes	aiops + monitor
incident_response	4	Yes	monitor + aiops
investigate_alert	4 / 8	Yes	monitor + aria (parallel-group gather + 4-criteria checkpoint, optional deep_dive)
plan_and_approve	3	Yes	aiops
compliance_scan	3	No	monitor + aria

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

Scenario	Recommended	Why
Local/small models (Ollama, Qwen)	MCP	Structured JSON I/O for multi-step state
Cloud models (Claude, GPT-4o)	MCP	Design mode needs structured tool calls
CI/CD pipeline orchestration	MCP	Programmatic plan/approve/run cycle
Quick template listing	MCP	Call list_workflows; the CLI has no template commands

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 <path> 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