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Quick Start

CLI Installation​

The Invariant CLI lets you interact with Invariant from your terminal. Use it for automation, scripting, and direct access to core features.

Installing from pip

pip install invariant-client

Installing from source

git clone https://github.com/InvariantTech/client
cd client
pip install -e .

Verify your installation

Verify the CLI is installed and working:

invariant --version
# client: vX.Y.Z
# server: vA.B.C

If installed from source, use:

poetry run invariant --version

Account Setup​

Follow this link to Create a free account. Your Invariant account will give you access to the Invariant analysis engine.

CLI Authentication​

Authenticate your CLI session:

invariant login

This prints a login URL. Open it in your browser and sign in. Never share the login code with anyone. After authentication, you'll see:

Logged in as your-email@example.com (tenant=your-organization-name).

Your session is now active.

Session expiry

CLI sessions expire after a period of inactivity or 24 hours. If your session expires, just run invariant login again.

Running an example snapshot​

  1. Download the codelab solution directory and move into that directory.

    git clone https://github.com/InvariantTech/codelab_solution
    cd codelab_solution

  2. Log in to your Invariant account on the CLI using the invariant login command.

    invariant login

  3. Then invoke the invariant run command to upload the snapshot to Invariant

    invariant run

  4. You should see an output that looks like the following.

$ invariant run
Uploading snapshot...
Processing... (adf11172-9f8a-4333-b7c7-f9f0ecefe8d9)
Analysis complete.

╭───────────────────────┬────────╮
│ Network Information   │   Rows │
├───────────────────────┼────────┤
│ nodes                 │     12 │
│ interfaces            │     94 │
│ named_structures      │     66 │
│ defined_structures    │    350 │
│ referenced_structures │    349 │
│ unused_structures     │      5 │
│ vlan_properties       │     12 │
│ hsrp_properties       │      0 │
│ mlag_properties       │      0 │
│ ip_owners             │     51 │
│ undefined_references  │      0 │
│ vrrp_properties       │      8 │
╰───────────────────────┴────────╯

╭───────────────┬────────╮
│ Topology      │   Rows │
├───────────────┼────────┤
│ edges         │     42 │
│ layer_1_edges │      0 │
│ layer_3_edges │     42 │
│ network_map   │      1 │
╰───────────────┴────────╯

╭────────────────────────────┬────────╮
│ Routing                    │   Rows │
├────────────────────────────┼────────┤
│ routes                     │    270 │
│ bgp_process_config         │      4 │
│ bgp_peer_config            │      8 │
│ bgp_session_compatibility  │      8 │
│ bgp_session_status         │      8 │
│ bgp_edges                  │      8 │
│ bgp_ribs                   │      8 │
│ ospf_process_config        │      6 │
│ ospf_interface_config      │     36 │
│ ospf_area_config           │      6 │
│ ospf_session_compatibility │     20 │
╰────────────────────────────┴────────╯

╭───────────────────┬────────╮
│ Setup             │   Rows │
├───────────────────┼────────┤
│ unconnected_nodes │      0 │
│ ignored_lines     │     32 │
│ file_parse_status │      9 │
│ parse_warnings    │     59 │
│ errors            │      0 │
╰───────────────────┴────────╯

╭────────────────────────┬────────╮
│ Inconsistent Traffic   │   Rows │
├────────────────────────┼────────┤
│ subnet_multipath       │      0 │
│ loopback_multipath     │      0 │
╰────────────────────────┴────────╯

╭──────────┬────────╮
│ Probes   │   Rows │
├──────────┼────────┤
│ probes   │      6 │
╰──────────┴────────╯

╭──────────────────────────────────────┬────────╮
│ Access Policy                        │   Rows │
├──────────────────────────────────────┼────────┤
│ critical_flows_ok                    │      1 │
│ critical_flows_violations            │      0 │
│ critical_flows_violations_unenforced │      0 │
│ critical_flows_skipped               │      0 │
│ critical_flows_details               │      3 │
│ critical_flows_logs                  │      1 │
│ policy_ok                            │      3 │
│ policy_violations                    │      0 │
│ policy_violations_unenforced         │      0 │
│ policy_skipped                       │      0 │
│ policy_details                       │     37 │
│ policy_logs                          │      3 │
╰──────────────────────────────────────┴────────╯


Run 'invariant show <file> --snapshot adf11172-9f8a-4333-b7c7-f9f0ecefe8d9' to examine any file,
or run 'export INVARIANT_SNAPSHOT=adf11172-9f8a-4333-b7c7-f9f0ecefe8d9' to skip the --snapshot argument.
info

You are now ready to begin the Tutorial

Sync Agent​

To configure the Invariant Sync Agent, follow the steps in Automation > Invariant Sync Agent

LLM Integration​

To use Invariant from or with an LLM, follow the steps in Cookbooks > LLM Integration