Cove Data Protection MCP

Cove Data Protection + AI - for Claude, the ChatGPT desktop app, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, and any agent that speaks MCP

Unofficial. Community-built Claude Code Skill and MCP server for the Cove Data Protection API. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by N-able.

[Cove Data Protection demo - animated preview]

_{▶ Watch the 30-second demo - demo data is simulated; every command shown exists in the real CLI.}

Also from Servosity. Backup & DR is Servosity's own field - the first-party Servosity connector brings this same fleet-wide, local-mirror approach (fleet attention, stale backups, restores, QBR reporting) to Servosity Backup and DR.

Comparing backup vendors? One of our MSP partners told us, "My guys now spend a tenth of the time on backups." Fixing is included in every Servosity co-managed backup plan, and our engineers tell you what they did. See how co-managed backup works

The first CLI and MCP server for Cove Data Protection: fleet-wide backup health, billing usage, and storage trends from a terminal, with the local history the vendor console doesn't keep. Works with the AI you already use - ChatGPT (desktop app), Claude Desktop, Codex, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, and GitHub Copilot - plus Gemini CLI. Free, open source, runs on your laptop. Built for MSP owners. No code required.

Works with your agent

The six agents MSP owners actually use (self-serve, works today):

The ChatGPT desktop app runs cove-mcp locally and shares MCP configuration with Codex (OpenAI). ChatGPT on the web needs a remote server, which msp-skills does not support yet. If your team works there, a hosted gateway is the better pick; check that your AI app is on the gateway's setup list. Setup steps: mcp-install.md.

Also for the Microsoft and Google stacks

Big install base, but an honest heads-up: Gemini CLI runs the local binary you just installed, while Microsoft 365 Copilot and the Gemini app need a remote server, which msp-skills does not support yet.

Skill-native agents (also covered): Hermes and OpenClaw read this skill's SKILL.md directly and speak MCP - see their install sections below. Also works with Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Continue.dev, and Zed via MCP. Full per-tool wire-up: docs/which-agent.md.

Run more than one agent? Install across all 51+ supported agents in one command: npx skills add Servosity/msp-skills@latest (requires Node.js, then run the per-skill installer for the CLI/MCP binaries). See docs/which-agent.md.

Install in 60 seconds

Fastest for Claude Desktop - one-click .mcpb

Claude Desktop bundle: the .mcpb launches on macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows x64 and Linux x64. Every tool shells out to the companion cove-cli. Releases cut from 2026-09-18 on ship that CLI inside the bundle; older bundles contain only the MCP server, so if yours lacks the companion, run the Path A or Path B installer below first (or set COVE_CLI_PATH to an existing binary). Details: #331.

Download Cove Data Protection MCP (.mcpb) - then open Claude Desktop > Settings > Extensions and select the file. One click, no JSON, no shell. (Browse every Cove Data Protection release on the releases page.)

Prefer the Claude Code plugin? Add the marketplace once, then install - works immediately, no directory listing required:

/plugin marketplace add Servosity/msp-skills/plugin install cove@msp-skills

Path A - paste one prompt into your AI agent (recommended)

Copy this into Claude Code, Codex CLI, or Claude Cowork:

Install the Cove Data Protection Skill and MCP server from Servosity/msp-skills in this agent workspace. If this workspace uses a POSIX shell (macOS, Linux, WSL, or Bash), run bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/cove/install.sh). If it uses Windows PowerShell, run iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/cove/install.ps1 | iex. Then authenticate per the README and run cove-cli --help to explore.

The same prompt works in any agent that can run shell.

Path B - run the installer yourself

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/cove/install.ps1 | iex

macOS / Linux:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/cove/install.sh)

The installer drops both cove-cli (the CLI) and cove-mcp (the MCP server) into your user bin path. Claude Code, Codex, and Cowork discover the Skill via SKILL.md in this directory.

Verify:

cove-cli --version

Upgrade to the latest version

The installer always fetches the current release - re-run it to upgrade:

macOS / Linux:

bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/cove/install.sh)

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/cove/install.ps1 | iex

Claude Desktop .mcpb users: download the latest .mcpb (top of this section) and re-select it in Settings > Extensions. Claude Code plugin users: /plugin update cove@msp-skills.

Add to Claude Desktop, the ChatGPT desktop app, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, or another MCP client

After the installer runs, see mcp-install.md and docs/which-agent.md for the per-agent wire-up - one section per agent, including the GitHub Copilot servers key and the ChatGPT desktop app. Claude Desktop's Settings > Extensions panel is the simplest path; the MCP config block (for users who prefer editing JSON) is documented in mcp-install.md.

Install for Hermes

From the Hermes CLI:

hermes skills install servosity/msp-skills/skills/cove --force

Inside a Hermes chat session:

/skills install servosity/msp-skills/skills/cove --force

Hermes speaks MCP natively, so it can also use the cove-mcp server directly - same install path, same env vars.

Install for OpenClaw

Tell your OpenClaw agent (copy this):

Install the cove skill from https://github.com/servosity/msp-skills/tree/main/skills/cove. The skill defines how its required CLI (cove-cli) can be installed via the openclaw: frontmatter block.

OpenClaw isn't generally available yet; the frontmatter wiring is pre-shipped and will activate the moment OpenClaw launches.

Authenticate

See mcp-install.md for the credentials cove-cli needs.

What this skill does

Full command reference: guide.md. For the AI-agent operating contract (--agent, --dry-run, when to confirm before mutating), see AGENTS.md.

What makes this different

Most Cove Data Protection integrations and MCP servers proxy each question into a live API call. That's fine for one record. It dies at scale, when you're asking how many devices failed or went stale across all 40 customers last night, with the F00 status codes already decoded to names.

This skill sweeps the whole partner tree in one command and snapshots Cove into a local SQLite mirror with full-text search. Aggregate questions become one local sweep: instant, offline, and the AI sees the answer, not the raw data. Compound commands like fleet health --by partner and storage growth --since 7d join across devices, customers, and timestamped snapshots - trend work a stateless API wrapper can't do because the console keeps no history at all.

The pain this closes

MSPs running Cove Data Protection (the N-able backup platform, formerly SolarWinds Backup) keep hitting the same wall: the backup.management console scopes to one customer at a time and keeps no history. Threads on r/msp and the MSPGeek community ask the same questions over and over - "how do I get one cross-customer list of every failed backup?" and "how do I trend storage when the dashboard only shows today's number?" In the console the answer is always: click into each customer, eyeball the dashboard, repeat tomorrow. A silently stale device - one whose last status reads fine but hasn't actually succeeded in days - stays invisible until a restore fails.

What this skill does about it:

• cove-cli devices failures --since 24h --agent - the morning ticket queue: every failed, aborted, or never-started device across the whole fleet, status codes decoded.
• cove-cli devices stale --days 3 --json - the silently stale devices the last-status view hides, ranked worst-first.
• cove-cli fleet health --by partner --json - the single-pane rollup (healthy, failed, stale, never-run) with a per-customer breakdown.
• cove-cli storage growth --since 7d --agent - which devices and customers grow storage fastest, from local snapshot history.
• cove-cli billing usage --csv - per-device SKU, used storage, and M365 seats as the month-end invoice export.

See pain-point.md for the longer narrative.

Frequently asked questions

Does this work with ChatGPT?

Yes, in the ChatGPT desktop app. It runs MCP servers locally (STDIO), the way cove-mcp runs, and shares MCP configuration with Codex (OpenAI): add cove-mcp under Settings > MCP servers as a STDIO server, or add it once to Codex's ~/.codex/config.toml. ChatGPT on the web is not supported by msp-skills yet: it needs a remote server. If your team works there, a hosted gateway is the better pick; check that your AI app is on the gateway's setup list. Setup steps: mcp-install.md.

Does this work with Codex, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Copilot, or Gemini?

Yes - all of them speak MCP. Cross-tool install commands are in the matrix above and the deep-dive in docs/which-agent.md.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. The recommended install is to paste one sentence into Claude Code or Codex - your agent reads SKILL.md and does the install. The fallback is a one-line installer per OS (bash or PowerShell). Neither path requires writing code. You'll enter your Cove Data Protection credentials once.

Is my Cove Data Protection data safe?

Your data stays on your machine. The CLI and MCP server are local binaries. The SQLite mirror sits in a directory under your user account. The AI agent only sees what the CLI returns - typically a query result, not raw bulk data. Credentials are read from your environment or your agent's config; never bundled into this repo or transmitted anywhere by MSP Skills.

What kind of Cove account does it need?

A dedicated API User, created in the Cove Management Console under Users > API Users. It issues a login name and an API token (shown only once); API Users can use the JSON-RPC API but cannot sign in to the console. Set COVE_USERNAME to the API user's login name, COVE_PASSWORD to the API token, and COVE_PARTNER to the customer/partner it was created for (required for API Users). Set COVE_PARTNER to the full customer/partner string exactly as shown in the Cove console customer dropdown - usually including the account email in parentheses, e.g. Acme Corp ([email protected]), not just the company name; Cove returns the same 2100 "Unknown partner/username or bad password" error for a wrong format as for a bad password. The skill exchanges them for a cached session visa and refreshes it automatically. N-able retired the older per-user "API access" checkbox. See mcp-install.md.

Can it restore files or browse backed-up data?

No. This skill speaks the Cove management API: fleet health, billing, storage trends, and enumeration. Restores and per-session file browsing run through the Backup Manager client and the storage-node Reporting Service, which this CLI does not cover.

Will it replace the Cove portal?

No - it complements it. The console stays the place for restores, agent deployment, and per-session detail. This skill adds the cross-tenant sweep and the local trend layer the console structurally withholds.

What does it cost?

Free. Apache-2.0 licensed. You pay only for whichever AI agent you use (Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, etc.), and that's billed by your AI provider, not by us.

Safety model

The strongest control is the scope you grant the Cove Data Protection credentials - the CLI can only do what the credentials are permitted to do. Full details, including how to lock it down, are in governance.md.

Status

Live-verified. Confirmed by @AvlCompCo (MSP) against their own production tenant (receipt). More MSPs run it live in our weekly Build Sessions. RSVP at compoundingteams.com/build-sessions.

Standards. Conforms to the open Agent Skills spec (Anthropic, Dec 2025; 40+ agents). MCP-compatible - works with any MCP-capable agent including Hermes. OpenClaw-ready (frontmatter pre-wired, awaiting OpenClaw launch).

Maintained by Servosity. Apache-2.0 licensed. Built with CLI Printing Press. Last updated: 2026-06-07.