---
title: "Overgrowth – a living digital environment"
emoji: "🌿"
colorFrom: "green"
colorTo: "gray"
sdk: "gradio"
sdk_version: "4.44.0"
app_file: "app.py"
pinned: false
tags:
  - mcp-in-action-track-enterprise
---

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY2Hnz2pmDA

Social Media Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grahampaasch_overgrowth-a-living-digital-environment-activity-7401000001658765312-Q_cB?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAABO-OuYBtWdvfyVGnYlWMX4qmiNHrtFV06Q

Tag: mcp-in-action-track-enterprise

# Overgrowth – MCP Agent for Network Reliability

**Track:** MCP in Action – Enterprise  
**Hackathon:** MCP's 1st Birthday – Hosted by Anthropic & Gradio  

Overgrowth is a living, digitally persistent network engineer. It simulates an out-of-band (OOB) mesh with MCP tools, JSON state, and Gradio UI to plan, simulate, triage, and roll back network changes safely.

## Submission checklist (for judges + us)
- ✅ Track tag present: `mcp-in-action-track-enterprise`
- ✅ README links: demo video + social post (replace placeholders below before final submit)
- ✅ Demo video recorded (1–5 min) hitting the runbook steps below
- ✅ Team handles listed here: `@your-hf-handles`
- ✅ Space Secrets: set `OG_LLM_PROVIDER=anthropic` plus `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` (or OpenAI); Blaxel optional. Add GNS3 env vars only if demoing brownfield.

## Sponsor usage & eligibility
- **Blaxel LLM** (preferred; falls back to Anthropic/OpenAI/etc. if set) for Track 2 + Blaxel award
- **GNS3 brownfield** import path for enterprise realism
- **Modal/Anthropic/OpenAI/Nebius/HF** supported via env keys (already wired in llm_client)

What Overgrowth simulates:
- Hardware-like OOB mesh via MCP-style tools (backups, drift, bootstrap, alerts)
- Persistent state across runs (`infra/*.json`)
- Change simulation against the Track 1 MCP server (`network-change-simulator`)
- Topology-aware risk and blast radius
- Rollback planning and troubleshooting flows

---

## High-Level Architecture
[User]
  |
  v
[Gradio 6 UI: Overgrowth]
  |
  v
[Agent Pipeline]
  1. Parse free-text change request → hybrid steps (NL + JSON)
  2. For each step, call MCP `simulate_network_change` (Track 1 server)
  3. Blend MCP risk with topology impact (infra/topology.json)
  4. Generate config-diff summaries and rollback plan
  5. OOB Troubleshooting calls Overgrowth tools (backup, drift, alerts, bootstrap)
  |
  v
[MCP Servers / Tools]
  - Track 1: `simulate_network_change`
  - Overgrowth OOB tools: backups, drift, bootstrap, alerts, root-cause triage

---

## MCP Tools Used
- **External MCP server (Track 1):** `network-change-simulator` → `simulate_network_change`
- **Overgrowth OOB MCP-style tools (simulated hardware mesh):**
  - `oob_get_last_backup`, `oob_perform_backup`
  - `oob_detect_drift`, `oob_reset_drift_flag`
  - `oob_seed_device`
  - `oob_get_alerts`, `oob_add_alert`

Example Track 1 invocation (conceptual)
```
{
  "tool_name": "simulate_network_change",
  "arguments": {"preset_id": "leaf_tor_vlan_stage", "mode": "analysis"}
}
```

---

## User Workflow
1. Describe a change in the main textbox.
2. Click **Run Analysis** to get:
   - Plan tab: Hybrid NL + JSON steps with MCP-friendly `change_type` + `preset_id`
   - Risk & Topology: MCP risk plus blast radius from topology.json
   - Diffs: Conceptual before/after
   - Rollback: Ordered rollback plan
   - Tool Calls: Transparent MCP call log
3. Open **OOB Troubleshooting** to triage a device:
   - Runs backup/drift/alerts/boot checks (persistent JSON state)
   - Suggests root causes, rollback safety, and next MCP simulations

---

## Configuration

### GNS3 Server Setup (Required for Build Network & Lab Management)

The "Build Network" and "Lab Management" features require a running GNS3 server. Configure the server URL using environment variables:

```bash
# Copy the example environment file
cp .env.example .env

# Edit .env and set your GNS3 server URL
GNS3_SERVER=http://your-gns3-server:3080
GNS3_PROJECT_NAME=overgrowth
```

**Note:** When running on HuggingFace Spaces, you'll need to configure these as Space secrets. For local development with a local GNS3 server, the defaults will work.

---

## How to Use
1. Open the Space.
2. Enter a change request, e.g.  
   “Add VLAN 120 for tenant Blue on leaf-01 and uplink it to tor-03 (staging only).”
3. Inspect Plan, Risk, Diffs, Rollback, Tool Calls.
4. If there’s an issue, go to **OOB Troubleshooting**, pick a device, describe the symptom, and run triage.

---

## Notes for Judges
- Persistent state lives in `infra/*.json` and is updated during user actions (Option C).
- OOB tools emulate a hardware-backed OOB mesh while remaining pure MCP-style JSON/state.
- Track 1 MCP server is used for real change simulation; Overgrowth augments it with reliability/triage workflows.

---

## Future Extensions
- Richer root-cause engine combining MCP results with time-series alerts
- Multi-step autonomous remediation runs
- Import real config snippets for diffs
- CI/CD hooks to gate changes before rollout

---

## What is Overgrowth?
- A living MCP-powered OOB engineer that plans changes, simulates risk, detects drift, infers root cause, and self-heals.
- Persistence lives in `infra/*.json` so the environment evolves across runs (backups, drift, alerts, bootstrap, MCP history, synapse log).

## Why this matters for enterprise networks
- Gives SRE/netops teams a pre-flight simulator + autonomous triage loop without touching production hardware.
- Blends MCP tool calls (Track 1 server) with OOB state to deliver safety, transparency, and repeatability.
- Produces audit-ready synapse logs, stability scoring, and after-action narratives.

## How Overgrowth works
- **MCP Engine:** Calls Track 1 `simulate_network_change` with structured presets from parsed NL input.
- **OOB Engine:** Backup/drift/bootstrap/alerts tools operate on persistent JSON state to mimic a hardware OOB fabric.
- **Topology Model:** `infra/topology.json` informs blast radius and role-aware amplification.
- **Reasoning Layer:** Root-cause inference fuses MCP history, alerts, drift, backup age, and topology to rank causes.
- **Recovery Engine:** Executes recommended actions (MCP sims, backup, drift reset, bootstrap, alert clear) and logs everything.

## Autonomous Root-Cause Engine (Aggressive Mode)
- Multi-signal fusion (drift + alerts + backups + topology role + last MCP predictions).
- Cascading-failure inference (leaf→TOR→core amplification).
- Predictive simulation heuristic (reasons about presets without re-running tools).
- Recovery sequencing suggestions (rollback, re-bootstrap, re-run MCP full mode, auto-backup).

## Autonomous Recovery Engine (Self-Healing Overgrowth)
- Executes recommended actions via MCP-style calls and updates state.
- Tracks health with a stability metric (drift/alerts/backup-age/MCP-risk) and reports before/after.
- Logs every decision in `infra/synapse_log.json` and displays it in the Synapse Log tab.
- Provides after-action narratives and recovery execution summaries directly in the Troubleshooting tab.

## Architecture (ASCII)
```
User → Overgrowth UI
      → OOB Engine (backup / drift / bootstrap / alerts)
      → MCP Engine (Track 1 simulate_network_change)
      → Topology Model (blast radius, roles)
      → Synapse Log (state & audit trail)
```

## Demo Script (5 steps)
1. Input a change request (e.g., VLAN add) and click **Run Analysis**.
2. Show MCP risk + topology impact in Plan/Risk tabs.
3. Go to **OOB Troubleshooting**, enter “leaf-01 flap”, run troubleshooting to see root cause + stability + actions.
4. Click **Execute Recovery Plan**; watch recovery summary/log update and stability improve.
5. Open **Synapse Log** to show the audit trail of decisions and health deltas.

## Try it live
- Open the Space, follow the demo script above, then hit **Reset Overgrowth State** to rerun deterministically.

---

Demo video: https://youtu.be/YOUR_DEMO_VIDEO  
Social post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/YOUR_POST or https://x.com/YOUR_HANDLE/status/YOUR_TWEET_ID