Nmap MCP Server

Overview

The Nmap MCP Server provides a ready‑to‑use network scanning toolkit that can be invoked directly from an AI assistant. By exposing common Nmap operations—such as ping sweeps, port enumeration, OS and service detection, and SMB share discovery—as MCP tools, the server turns complex command‑line scans into simple function calls. This eliminates the need for developers to wrap Nmap themselves, reducing boilerplate and potential security pitfalls.

For developers building AI‑powered applications, the server solves a critical pain point: integrating low‑level network reconnaissance into conversational agents. Instead of manually parsing command outputs or writing custom parsers, an assistant can request a scan through the MCP protocol and receive structured JSON results. This seamless interaction enables richer, context‑aware dialogue—for example, a user could ask the assistant to “scan my local network for open SMB shares,” and the agent would return a concise, machine‑readable list of share names.

Key capabilities include:

• Ping and host discovery () to verify reachability without full port scans.
• Targeted port scans () that probe the top 100 common ports, balancing speed and coverage.
• Comprehensive scans () using Nmap’s flag for OS fingerprinting, version detection, and script scanning.
• Full‑range port enumeration () covering all 65,535 TCP ports when exhaustive coverage is required.
• SMB share enumeration () to discover shared resources on Windows hosts.

These tools are packaged inside a Docker container, ensuring that all dependencies—including the latest Nmap binary and MCP runtime—are isolated from the host system. The container can be started per request or kept running, depending on workflow needs, and the MCP interface automatically handles authentication, input validation, and output serialization.

Typical use cases span security testing, network inventory, and automated compliance checks. A penetration‑testing framework can query the assistant for a “quick scan” during reconnaissance, while an IT operations bot might schedule periodic network sweeps and report anomalies. Because the server is MCP‑compliant, it plugs into any AI platform that understands the protocol—Claude, ChatGPT, or custom agents—without requiring bespoke integration code.

In summary, the Nmap MCP Server turns a powerful but traditionally manual tool into an AI‑friendly service. By abstracting the intricacies of Nmap behind a clean, protocol‑driven interface, it empowers developers to build smarter assistants that can reason about and act on network state in real time.