• LOGS
  • NAT
  • SESSIONS
  • HUMAN

How to troubleshoot network connectivity with your AI

Connect your agent to PAN-OS once. From there, it handles the heavy lifting of digging through logs and session data to find the root cause of connection issues.

Ask AI about this page

Short answer

Why is my connection failing?

Your AI looks at traffic logs, NAT rules, and active sessions to find mismatches or dropped packets. You'll get a clear explanation of whether the issue is a rule conflict, a NAT error, or a session timeout.

Where every issue lands.

Troubleshooting outcomes

The AI sorts its findings into these specific categories.

LOGS

Traffic analysis

The AI checks traffic logs to see if packets are being dropped by security policies or if they are reaching their destination.

NAT

Rule verification

It inspects NAT rules to ensure source or destination translations aren't breaking the connection path.

SESSIONS

Session state

The agent looks at active sessions to see if a connection is stuck, timed out, or being terminated prematurely.

HUMAN

Manual intervention

If the logs show no errors, the AI flags that you need to check physical hardware or external ISP routing.

The workflow

What your AI does when the issue arrives.

Instead of you clicking through a GUI, your agent pulls the data it needs to build a picture of the failure.

  1. Identify dropped traffic

    The agent pulls recent traffic logs to see which specific security policy is blocking a request.

    get_traffic_logs

  2. Check translation rules

    It compares the traffic patterns against existing NAT rules to find translation mismatches.

    get_nat_rules

  3. Inspect session state

    The agent looks at current active sessions to see if the connection is actually established or if it's being dropped.

    get_active_sessions

  4. Summarize the cause

    The agent combines the log data and session info to tell you exactly why the connection failed.

    get_traffic_logsget_active_sessions

Try it

Copy these to start.

Use these prompts to kick off the troubleshooting process.

Starting points

Swap out the IP addresses or policy names with your actual network data.

PAN-OS Connector

You're all set. Choose your MCP client and follow the setup instructions.

Connector linkhttps://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_83HmcpYgcle8KqQOcz9GWLbtyUqjN3KZeuMd25f4/mcp

Claude Desktop

Follow the steps below to connect in seconds.

  1. 1In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Connectors.
  2. 2Click “Add custom connector” and paste the connector link above as the remote MCP server URL.
  3. 3Click Add and start a new chat — PAN-OS capabilities are ready to use.
Configuration · claude_desktop_config.jsonCopy
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pan-os-mcp": {
      "url": "https://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_83HmcpYgcle8KqQOcz9GWLbtyUqjN3KZeuMd25f4/mcp"
    }
  }
}
Copy into chat04

  • Check the traffic logs for any drops from 10.0.0.5 to 192.168.1.50.

  • Are there any NAT rules that would interfere with this specific source IP?

  • Look at the active sessions and tell me if the connection from the web server is still alive.

  • Analyze the traffic logs and NAT rules to find out why my VPN client can't reach the internal subnet.

  • Claude
  • ChatGPT
  • Cursor
  • VS Code
  • Windsurf
  • Claude Code
  • JetBrains
  • Cline

Start here

Connect PAN-OS once, then ask.

You only need to link your PAN-OS instance once. Your credentials stay encrypted, and you can immediately start asking questions in your preferred AI client.

Connect PAN-OS to your AI

FAQ

How this task behaves

  • 01

    Can the AI change my firewall rules?

    No. The AI can only read logs, rules, and sessions. It cannot modify your configuration or apply new policies.

  • 02

    Does the AI delete any session data?

    No. The AI only retrieves data for analysis. It has no capability to clear or terminate active sessions.

  • 03

    How far back can the AI look in the logs?

    The AI can only access the logs that are currently available through the get_traffic_logs tool.

  • 04

    Can it troubleshoot hardware failures?

    No. The AI only sees the data provided by the PAN-OS tools, so it cannot diagnose physical cable issues or power failures.

  • 05

    Do I need to provide the logs manually?

    No. Once connected, the AI uses its own tools to pull the logs directly from your PAN-OS instance.

  • More questions about PAN-OS? See everything the PAN-OS Connector can do

Connect PAN-OS to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT & more