rosetta

MCP server that gives AI assistants searchable access to MikroTik RouterOS documentation — 363 pages extracted live from MikroTik's official Docusaurus manual (https://manual.mikrotik.com), 4,587 properties, a 40,000-entry command tree, hardware specs for 156 current products (part of a wider 255-device overlay also covering legacy/EOL gear and accessories), 746 YouTube video transcripts, and direct links to source docs.

If you need MikroTik docs, you likely have a MikroTik. Install rosetta once as a container on your router using RouterOS /app, and any AI assistant on the network can use it. Or run it locally on your workstation. No AI required — rosetta includes a terminal browser for searching the database directly.

SQL-as-RAG

Instead of vector embeddings, rosetta uses SQLite FTS5 full-text search as the retrieval layer — SQL-as-RAG. For structured technical docs, BM25 ranking with porter stemming beats vector similarity: terms like dhcp-snooping and /ip/firewall/filter are exact tokens, not fuzzy embeddings. No API keys, no vector database — just a single SQLite file that searches in milliseconds.

What's Inside

Data Source	Coverage
Documentation pages	369 pages (~641K words) from MikroTik's live Docusaurus manual
Property definitions	2,799 from manual tables, plus 10,833 fields from the CLI Reference (1,062 menus and commands)
Command tree	5,333 commands, 576 dirs, 37K arguments
Version history	67 RouterOS versions with command data (7.9–7.25rc1)
Hardware products	155 current matrix devices — specs, pricing, block diagrams
Hardware overlay	258 devices (matrix + legacy/EOL + accessories), resolved via ~1,280 curated alias mappings for cross-source device lookup
Performance benchmarks	3,162 tests across 143 devices (ethernet + IPSec)
YouTube transcripts	746 videos, ~2,479 transcript segments
Callout blocks	880 warnings, notes, and tips

Counts are from the 0.11.3-next.114 release DB; routeros_stats reports the live numbers for the DB you're running.

Documentation covers RouterOS v7 only. Prose is extracted live from https://manual.mikrotik.com on each release build — no more stale export to keep in sync. MikroTik is moving property tables from the manual pages into its CLI Reference, which rosetta also ingests: property lookups and command explanations use the CLI Reference entry for a menu when it has the better answer, and say which source each answer came from (see DESIGN.md). The command tree itself comes from inspect.json.

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Install on MikroTik (/app)

RouterOS 7.22+ includes the /app feature for running containers directly on the router. This is the simplest way to deploy rosetta — install once, and any AI assistant on your network can connect to the MCP endpoint URL shown in the router UI.

Requirements: RouterOS 7.22+, x86 or ARM64 architecture (CCR, RB5009, hAP ax series, CHR, etc.), container package installed, device-mode enabled.

1. Enable containers (two reboots required)

If you haven't already enabled the container package and device-mode:

# Install the container package (router reboots automatically)
/system/package/update/check-for-updates duration=10s
/system/package/enable container
# Apply changes restarts the router

After reboot:

# Enable container device-mode (requires physical power cycle or button press — follow the on-screen prompt)
/system/device-mode/update mode=advanced container=yes

See MikroTik's Container documentation for full prerequisites and troubleshooting.

2. Add the rosetta app

/app/add use-https=yes disabled=no yaml="name: rosetta
descr: \"RouterOS Docs for AI assistants - use URL as MCP server\"
page: https://tikoci.github.io/p/rosetta
category: development
icon: https://tikoci.github.io/p/rosetta.svg
default-credentials: \"none - just use 'ui-url' as the MCP server in your AI assistant\"
url-path: /mcp
auto-update: true
services:
  rosetta:
    image: ghcr.io/tikoci/rosetta:latest
    container_name: mcp-server
    ports:
      - 9803:8080/tcp:web
"

That's it. RouterOS downloads the container image, configures networking and firewall redirects, and starts the MCP server. The auto-update: true setting pulls the latest image on each boot.

3. Get the MCP endpoint URL

The URL to use with your AI assistant is shown as UI URL in WebFig (App → rosetta), or from the CLI:

:put [/app/get rosetta ui-url]

This URL includes the /mcp path and is ready to paste into any MCP client that supports HTTP transport. With use-https=yes, the URL uses HTTPS with a MikroTik-managed *.routingthecloud.net certificate.

4. Configure your AI assistant

Point any HTTP-capable MCP client at the URL from the previous step:

{ "url": "https://app-rosetta.XXX.routingthecloud.net/mcp" }

CHR note: Cloud Hosted Router in free or trial mode does not include the /ip/cloud service needed for HTTPS certificates. Set use-https=no on the /app — the URL will use HTTP instead. The UI URL always reflects the correct protocol.

HTTP option: On any platform, you may choose use-https=no if you prefer HTTP or are on an isolated network.

Browse the database from the router: If rosetta is running as a /app, you can use /container/shell to access the TUI browser directly:

/container/shell app-rosetta
# /app/rosetta browse

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Install Locally (with Bun)

Run rosetta on your workstation using Bun. The MCP server runs over stdio — no network configuration needed. The database downloads automatically on first launch (~50 MB compressed).

Quick setup

bunx @tikoci/rosetta --setup

This downloads the database and prints config snippets for all supported MCP clients. Copy-paste the config for your client and you're done.

To force a database reload, stop clients using that DB first. For the stable default install, use:

bunx @tikoci/rosetta@latest --refresh

For a pinned or prerelease install, use your original package version and --db / DB_PATH destination with --refresh. Refreshing an existing DB requires stopping its owners, including other clients on the same exact version.

Prerelease channel (optional)

New builds sometimes ship first as a prerelease (X.Y.Z-next.N) so testers can opt in without moving what everyone else gets by default:

bunx @tikoci/rosetta@next     # newest build: a prerelease, or latest when none is newer

@next is never behind latest: each stable release also moves next unless a newer prerelease is already there, so it is safe to leave @next in an MCP config. bunx @tikoci/rosetta (no tag) and bunx @tikoci/rosetta@latest always resolve to the default, non-prerelease channel — publishing a prerelease never moves latest.

Dist-tags, not semver ranges. A version range like ^0.11.3-next is not equivalent to a dist-tag. npm's prerelease range matching only spans the exact [major,minor,patch] tuple written in the range, so it stops tracking new prereleases the moment a patch/minor bump happens. @next is the "follow forever" mechanism. The older @alpha / @beta / @rc tags are retired and no longer receive updates — switch any config using them to @next.

Configure your MCP client

VS Code Copilot

Open the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P), choose "MCP: Add Server…", select "Command (stdio)", enter bunx as the command, and @tikoci/rosetta as the argument.

Or add to User Settings JSON (Cmd+Shift+P → "Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)"):

"mcp": {
  "servers": {
    "rosetta": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@tikoci/rosetta"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add rosetta -- bunx @tikoci/rosetta

Claude Desktop

Edit your Claude Desktop config file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rosetta": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@tikoci/rosetta"]
    }
  }
}

PATH note: Claude Desktop on macOS doesn't always inherit your shell PATH. If bunx isn't found, use the full path (typically ~/.bun/bin/bunx). Run bunx @tikoci/rosetta --setup to print the full-path config.

Restart Claude Desktop after editing.

Cursor

Open Settings → MCP and add a new server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rosetta": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["@tikoci/rosetta"]
    }
  }
}

OpenAI Codex

codex mcp add rosetta -- bunx @tikoci/rosetta

Note: ChatGPT Apps require a remote HTTPS MCP endpoint. Use the MikroTik /app install or another container platform for a hosted endpoint, or Codex CLI for local stdio.

GitHub Copilot CLI

Inside a copilot session, type /mcp add:

• Server Name: routeros-rosetta
• Server Type: 2 (STDIO)
• Command: bunx @tikoci/rosetta

Install Bun (if you don't have it):

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

# Windows
powershell -c "irm bun.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

Auto-update: bunx checks the npm registry each session and uses the latest published version automatically. Each exact package version uses its own ~/.rosetta/ros-help-<version>.db, so different versions can run side by side. Rosetta cleans up after itself: on startup it keeps the versions currently in use plus the most recently used idle one, and deletes older copies. The pre-0.11.3 shared ros-help.db is never deleted automatically, because a long-running older client may still be using it. Once it looks unused, rosetta logs a hint: stop any rosetta ≤0.11.2 clients first, then delete ~/.rosetta/ros-help.db* by hand. DB_PATH and --db remain explicit, caller-managed overrides; use absolute paths in MCP environment settings because ~ is not shell-expanded.

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Browse Without AI

Rosetta includes a terminal-based "card catalog" browser — no AI assistant or MCP client required. It searches the same database the MCP tools use, with a keyboard-driven REPL modeled after a 1980s library terminal.

bunx @tikoci/rosetta browse

Type a search query to find documentation pages, then select a numbered result to drill in. Beyond page search, the browser covers every data source in the database:

Command	What it searches
(bare text)	Documentation pages (default)
dev <query>	Device hardware specs, block diagrams, benchmarks
cmd [path]	Command tree hierarchy
prop <name>	Property definitions (scoped to current page when viewing one)
cal [query]	Warnings, notes, and tips
cl [version]	Changelogs — cl breaking for breaking changes only
vid <query>	YouTube video transcripts with timestamped chapter links
diff <from> <to>	Command tree diff between RouterOS versions
tests [type]	Cross-device performance benchmarks
ver	Live-fetch current RouterOS versions

Type help for the full command list. URLs are clickable in terminals that support OSC 8 hyperlinks (iTerm2, Windows Terminal, GNOME Terminal, etc.).

The browser is also useful as an audit surface — it shares core query functions with MCP and exposes every MCP tool as a raw dot-command, so gaps or rough edges visible here often point to agent-facing improvements too.

From a router: If rosetta is installed as a /app, access the browser via /container/shell app-rosetta then /app/rosetta browse.

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Try It

Ask your AI assistant questions like:

• "What are the DHCP server properties in RouterOS?"
• "How do I set up a bridge VLAN?"
• "Is the /container command available in RouterOS 7.12?"
• "Show me warnings about hardware offloading"
• "Which MikroTik routers have L3HW offload, and more than 8 ports of 48V PoE? Include cost."
• "Compare the RB5009 and CCR2004 IPSec throughput at 1518-byte packets."
• "My BGP routes stopped working after upgrading from 7.15 to 7.22 — what changed in the routing commands?"

MCP Tools

The server exposes 14 tools designed to work together — agents start with routeros_search and drill into specific data as needed:

Tool	What it does
routeros_search	Start here. Unified search with input classifier — returns pages + related callouts, videos, properties, changelogs, devices, skills
routeros_get_page	Full page content by ID or title, section-aware for large pages
routeros_lookup_property	Property by exact name — type, default, description
routeros_explain_command	Read-only explanation for a CLI command — canonical path/verb, args, warnings, docs, changelogs
routeros_command_tree	Browse the command hierarchy (/ip/firewall/filter style)
routeros_search_changelogs	Changelogs filtered by version range, category, breaking flag
routeros_command_version_check	Which RouterOS versions include a command path
routeros_command_diff	Added/removed commands between two RouterOS versions
routeros_device_lookup	Hardware specs — filter by architecture, RAM, PoE, wireless, etc.
routeros_search_tests	Cross-device ethernet and IPSec benchmarks
routeros_dude_search	FTS across archived Dude wiki docs (separate from RouterOS search)
routeros_dude_get_page	Full Dude wiki page by ID or title, with screenshot metadata
routeros_stats	Database health and coverage stats
routeros_current_versions	Live-fetch current RouterOS versions from MikroTik

Each tool description includes workflow arrows (→ next_tool) and empty-result hints so agents chain tools effectively.

The server also exposes MCP Resources for bulk data and supplemental content — CSV datasets (rosetta://datasets/...), schema documentation (rosetta://schema...), and agent skill guides (rosetta://skills/{name}) from tikoci/routeros-skills. Skills are community-created, human-reviewed guides served with provenance attribution. See MANUAL.md for details.

RTFM for Details

For additional install options, HTTP transport configuration, data source details, and the database schema, see MANUAL.md.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for building from source, running tests, development setup, and the release process.

License

MIT