Danny Wade

network automation nerd • Cisco Press Author • #CiscoChampion • #DevNet500 • tweets are my own •

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

It's been an unbelievable experience writing my first @CiscoPress book with @John_Capobianco. I hope this book not only helps network engineers learn about #pyATS, but showcases how network testing can be a great start to their network automation journey. Network testing is often overlooked, but provides such a great value with low impact risk to the network!

Thank you to everyone that has helped me during the writing process. I couldn't have done it without the great people at @pearson, especially @nancydavis!

And yes, the coffee (and lemonade) flight was great! 😁

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

@LeonCassidy @NetBoxLabs Thank you!

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

On my way to NetBox Evolve! I’m honored to be speaking at @NetBoxLabs inaugural conference and looking forward to spending time with the larger NetBox community. Please reach out if you’re attending - I’d love to connect! #NetBoxEvolve

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

@Thespis377 What app is this?

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

@TracketPacer I’m the keynote speaker at the VANUG event on the same night! Looks like we’re covering coast to coast.

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

I'm still learning about it, but Jev may move mountains with regards to network/infra automation. Unstructured data input -> type-safe, structured output. Built on deterministic behavior, with every output having a confidence score. I see you @typesafeai
https://t.co/0BNvsRHLs3

[(US)NUA @us_nua]

Please join us in welcoming Dan Wade! Dan is the Network and Infrastructure Automation Practice Lead at BlueAlly and the co-author of a Cisco Press book about Cisco pyATS.
📅 Date: September 24, 2026
🎟️ RSVP: https://t.co/DfYGRgbqjS

#VANUG #VirginiaNetworking #NetworkAutomation

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

@vanderaaj I’ve been waiting to check out what @mitchellh has been cooking up with @superlogical

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

@IPvSean @andriusb A nightmare on YAML street 😂

[Cisco Insider Champion @CiscoChampion]

Network complexity shouldn't require custom code at every turn. ⚙️

Catch the latest #CiscoChampionRadio on stack automation, infrastructure governance, and upcoming AI solutions:

🎙️ https://t.co/bVCZY98Ttr

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

I had a great time recording this episode. Give it a listen! #CiscoChampionRadio

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

@TracketPacer NetBox is a solid choice

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

@SebbyCorp Five nines of uptime

[John Capobianco @John_Capobianco]

I've been a pyATS practitioner since 2019 and I wrote the pyATS book for Cisco. So when I tell you this one surprised me, I mean it.

Nothing was pre-staged. I opened Claude Code, pointed the Anthropic Itential Builder Skills at two of my repos, and described what I wanted in plain language.

pyATS Skills → https://t.co/PgdKijA8Ip

pyATS MCP, rewritten from scratch as a stateless streamable HTTP server → https://t.co/sEsm4kbUzc

Then I asked for two agents: interface health and overall device health.

From there it:

→ Built and launched the pyATS MCP server as a Docker container → Registered it with my local Itential Gateway → Re-registered the gateway with the Itential Platform, surfacing all 26 pyATS tools for selection at build time → Created a new "pyATS Network Testing" project with RBAC scoped to the right group → Assembled both FlowAgents, tested them in a scratchpad against a live Cisco DevNet sandbox device, caught its own schema gap, fixed it, and re-validated

That last part is the one I'd underline.

It didn't hand me untested agents.

It called a real device before finalizing anything.

The results:

Overall Health Agent: 2 min 21 sec.

CPU, memory, interfaces, OSPF, BGP, log and crash indicators, returned as a structured report with an overall status.

Interface Health Agent:

1 min 35 sec.

Takes a device name and nothing else. Core, distribution, data center, whatever you've got. Returned admin and operational status, IP addressing, error and drop counters, and flagged that VLAN 20 had an IP but a down SVI, so that subnet was unreachable.

Both read-only.

Both scoped to only the tools they need, the interface agent got three of the twenty-six.

Both logged, both governed by RBAC, both callable by API.

Roughly 15 minutes of active build time.

The pyATS expertise was already sitting in the skills.

The MCP server exposed it as tools.

The Builder Skill turned it into something the whole team can run, on demand, with permissions that actually mean something.

Full demo below.

22 minutes. Start to finish. No cuts. No edits. Authentic innovation.

If you are an Itential user or want to know more just reach out to me directly!

https://t.co/ubHW2M0ubQ

#pyATS #NetworkAutomation #Itential #ClaudeCode #MCP #AgenticAI #Cisco

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

@pstavirs @CiscoChampion Thanks!

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

Excited to share that I've been invited back to the Cisco Insider Champion program! Here's to Year 6! 🥳 @CiscoChampion

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

Back in the day, you copied a .bin file and configured a 'boot system' statement. Now, it's all over...
https://t.co/h2b5nn40lw

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

@scottrobohn Seems like a light read… 😆

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

When learning about network automation, many engineers learn about "idempotency". If you're trying to understand it or need a refresher, I encourage you to check out this @temporalio blog! https://t.co/kNfH0BWzUe

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

Stumbled upon this great blog post about the pyATS ecosystem. If you want to understand the different parts of pyATS better, check it out!
https://t.co/K158Zk6f4v

[Danny Wade @devnetdan]

"If generated work becomes easier to produce, then validation, review, and operational judgment become more important, not less."

Check out this great blog post about how AI assists, not replaces, network automation: https://t.co/Rk4XmmXSyV