SharkMCP

An MCP server that exposes sharkd — Wireshark's programmatic interface — as a set of tools for LLMs. Load PCAP/PCAPNG files and analyse them with natural language.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• Wireshark (provides sharkd)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/weirdmachine64/sharkmcp.git
cd sharkmcp
pip install -e .

Or run directly from the repo without installing:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/weirdmachine64/sharkmcp sharkmcp

Configuration

Add to your .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sharkmcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/weirdmachine64/sharkmcp", "sharkmcp"],
      "env": {
        "SHARKMCP_TIMEOUT": "300"
      }
    }
  }
}

Env var	Default	Description
SHARKMCP_SHARKD_BIN	sharkd	Path to sharkd binary
SHARKMCP_TIMEOUT	300	Per-request timeout in seconds

Tools

Each loaded PCAP gets a dedicated sharkd subprocess. Results from expensive scans (conversations, expert info, export objects) are cached in memory so paginated follow-up calls are served without re-scanning.

Session

Tool	Description
load_pcap(path, alias?)	Load a PCAP/PCAPNG file
list_pcaps()	List all loaded PCAPs
unload_pcap(alias)	Terminate session and free memory

Overview

Tool	Description
pcap_summary(alias)	Frame count, duration, file size, protocols seen
server_info(alias)	All available tap types, follow protocols, field types

Packet Inspection

Tool	Description
list_packets(alias, filter?, columns?, refs?)	Paginated frame list with display filter
packet_detail(alias, frame, include_bytes?, include_hidden?)	Full protocol tree for one frame
extract_fields(alias, fields, filter?)	Extract arbitrary fields per packet as a table

Utilities

Tool	Description
validate(alias, filter?, field?)	Validate a display filter and/or field name
complete(alias, field?, pref?)	Autocomplete field or preference names by prefix
get_preference(alias, preference?)	Read dissector preferences
set_preference(alias, name, value)	Set a dissector preference for this session
set_frame_comment(alias, frame, comment)	Annotate a frame (session-scoped)

Traffic Structure

Tool	Description
protocol_hierarchy(alias, filter?)	Nested protocol tree with frame/byte counts
io_stats(alias, interval_ms?, filter?)	Per-interval frame and byte counts
iograph(alias, graphs, interval_ms?, filters?)	Multi-line traffic graph; supports packets, bytes, bits, sum:<field>, avg:<field>, min:<field>, max:<field>, load:<field>, frames:<field>
follow_stream(alias, protocol, filter)	Reassemble a stream (tcp, udp, tls, http, http2, quic, sip, dccp, websocket)

Conversations & Topology

Tool	Description
conversations(alias, type?, sort_by?)	Conversation table — bytes/frames per peer pair
endpoints(alias, type?, sort_by?)	Endpoint table — tx/rx per host

Supported layer types for both: tcp, udp, ip, ipv6, eth, sctp, dccp, mptcp, wifi, bluetooth, zigbee, fc, fddi, usb, and more.

Protocol Statistics

Tool	Description
expert_info(alias, filter?)	Per-frame anomaly detection — errors, warnings, notes, chats
protocol_stats(alias, protocol)	Aggregate stats for dns, http, http_requests, http_server, sip, dhcp, h225, http2, rtsp
service_response_time(alias, protocol)	Request/response latency for smb, smb2, snmp, ldap, diameter, rpc, gtp, and more
response_time_delay(alias, protocol)	Round-trip delay for radius, h225_ras, megaco, mgcp
sequence_diagram(alias, type?)	Flow diagram data for tcp, icmp, icmpv6, any

Media & VoIP

Tool	Description
voip_calls(alias, filter?)	SIP/H.323 call list with state and participants
rtp_streams(alias, stream_spec?)	RTP stream inventory; pass stream_spec for per-stream jitter/loss
multicast_streams(alias, filter?)	UDP multicast stream statistics

Export & Objects

Tool	Description
export_objects(alias, type?)	List extractable objects (http, imf, smb, tftp, dicom, ftp-data)
download_object(alias, token)	Download an object, TLS session keys (ssl-secrets), or RTP audio (rtp:<spec>) as base64

Escape Hatch

Tool	Description
tap(alias, specs, filter?, skip?, limit?)	Run any sharkd tap directly — up to 16 specs in one PCAP scan. Use server_info to discover valid identifiers.

Example

> load_pcap("/captures/traffic.pcap", alias="traffic")
> protocol_hierarchy("traffic")
> expert_info("traffic", limit=20)
> conversations("traffic", type="tcp", sort_by="bytes")
> extract_fields("traffic", ["dns.qry.name", "dns.a"], filter="dns")
> follow_stream("traffic", "http", "tcp.stream eq 0")
> export_objects("traffic", type="http")
> download_object("traffic", "eo:http_0")

Architecture

    LLM
     │  MCP (stdio)
     ▼
 SharkMCP server
     │  JSON-RPC 2.0 (stdin/stdout)
     ├─ sharkd [pcap-1]
     ├─ sharkd [pcap-2]
     └─ sharkd [pcap-N]

One sharkd subprocess per loaded PCAP. Sessions are isolated — concurrent queries on different aliases never block each other.