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Ze: a different take on networking

Ze is a programmable network engine written in Go, built as the successor to ExaBGP. At its core, Ze is a content-agnostic event bus -- BGP is a component, everything else is a plugin.

• Network OS workflow: CLI, SSH, Web UI -- one interface for humans, machines, and AI
• YANG-modeled configuration with hot reconfiguration, rollback, and commit confirmed
• Plugin architecture: 25 plugins, each self-contained with YANG schemas
• AI-ready: MCP transport, ze help --ai, self-describing commands
• ExaBGP compatibility: ze config migrate converts your existing setup
• AGPL-3.0, hosted on Codeberg

Ze is still under heavy development, but if you're an ExaBGP user, give it a try -- your existing scripts and configs work with ze exabgp plugin and ze config migrate.

CLI

Interactive config editor with tab completion driven by YANG schemas. Network OS workflow: edit, diff, commit, rollback.

Web Interface

HTTPS interface with macOS Finder-style column navigation. Every UI element generated from YANG schemas. Per-user draft sessions with inline diff review.

Looking Glass

Built-in public looking glass with live peer dashboard and route lookup.

Route search with AS path topology graph (server-side SVG, Sugiyama layout, pure Go). Birdwatcher-compatible REST API for Alice-LG integration.

Chaos Testing

ze-chaos is a chaos testing orchestrator with a web dashboard for convergence tracking and property verification.

Presentation

A presentation about Ze was given at net:manchester in April 2026.