| name | te-path-analysis |
| description | Cisco ThousandEyes — path visualization, BGP route analysis, outage investigation, instant tests, endpoint agent diagnostics. Use when tracing network paths hop-by-hop, investigating why a site is slow, analyzing BGP route changes, diagnosing an internet outage, or troubleshooting VPN from endpoint agents. |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| license | Apache-2.0 |
| tags | ["cisco","thousandeyes","path-vis","bgp","outage","instant-test","endpoint","troubleshooting"] |
ThousandEyes Path Analysis & Troubleshooting
MCP Servers
- Community:
src/server.py (stdio, Python 3.12+) — te_get_path_vis for path visualization
- Official:
https://api.thousandeyes.com/mcp (remote HTTP) — full path vis, BGP, instant tests, anomalies, endpoint agents
Key Capabilities
Path Visualization
| Source | Tool | What It Does |
|---|
| Community | te_get_path_vis | Hop-by-hop path from a specific agent to the test target |
| Official | Get Path Visualization | Network paths with routing details |
| Official | Get Full Path Visualization | Comprehensive path data aggregated across all agents |
Path visualization shows every network hop between agent and target:
- IP address and DNS name of each hop
- Latency per hop (pinpoints where delay is introduced)
- Packet loss per hop (identifies lossy links)
- MPLS labels (reveals traffic engineering paths)
- Network owner (ISP/carrier identification per hop)
BGP Route Analysis
| Tool | What It Does |
|---|
| Get BGP Test Results | BGP reachability — which BGP monitors see the prefix, which don't |
| Get BGP Route Details | AS path, origin AS, prefix length, route stability |
BGP analysis provides external routing visibility:
- Prefix reachability from ThousandEyes' global BGP monitor fleet
- AS path — is traffic routing through expected carriers?
- Route changes — detect BGP hijacks, leaks, or suboptimal routing
- Origin validation — verify the prefix originates from the correct AS
Outage Investigation
| Tool | What It Does |
|---|
| Search Outages | Find network and application outages with time/scope filters |
| List Events | Network/application problems with affected targets |
| Get Event Details | Deep dive: impacted tests, affected agents, timeline |
Active Troubleshooting
| Tool | What It Does |
|---|
| Instant Tests | Run tests on demand from selected agents — don't wait for scheduled cycles |
| Get Anomalies | Detect metric deviations from baseline over time |
| Views Explanations | AI-powered explanation of test results and visualizations |
Endpoint Diagnostics
| Tool | What It Does |
|---|
| List Endpoint Agents and Tests | Endpoint agents on user workstations with test associations |
| Get Endpoint Agent Metrics | WiFi signal, VPN tunnel latency, DNS response, HTTP performance |
Workflow: "Why Is Site X Slow?"
The classic ThousandEyes troubleshooting workflow:
- Identify test:
te_list_tests (community) filtered by target site
- Check results:
te_get_test_results (community) — is latency elevated? Packet loss?
- Path visualization:
te_get_path_vis (community) — hop-by-hop analysis
- Full path: Get Full Path Visualization (official) — all agents, compare paths
- Pinpoint hop: identify the hop where latency spikes or loss appears
- BGP check: Get BGP Route Details (official) — is routing suboptimal?
- Anomalies: Get Anomalies (official) — when did the degradation start?
- Report: "Latency increase traced to hop 7 (ISP-X backbone router 203.0.113.45). AS path changed at 14:32 UTC — traffic now routing through AS 64512 instead of direct peering. BGP route via AS 65001 withdrawn."
Workflow: Internet Outage Triage
When ThousandEyes detects a broad outage:
- Search outages: Search Outages (official) — scope: ISP, CDN, SaaS provider?
- Events: List Events (official) — which tests are affected?
- Event details: Get Event Details (official) — impacted targets, severity, timeline
- Path vis:
te_get_path_vis (community) for affected tests — where does the path break?
- BGP: Get BGP Test Results (official) — prefix still reachable? Route withdrawn?
- Instant test: Instant Tests (official) — verify from multiple cloud agents
- Report: outage scope, affected services, root cause, estimated provider recovery
Workflow: Endpoint VPN Troubleshooting
When users report VPN issues:
- List endpoint agents: List Endpoint Agents and Tests (official) — affected users
- Endpoint metrics: Get Endpoint Agent Metrics (official) — WiFi signal, DNS, VPN latency
- Path visualization: Get Path Visualization (official) — user to VPN gateway path
- Compare: run enterprise agent test to same VPN gateway — is it user-side?
- Anomalies: Get Anomalies (official) — when did metrics degrade?
- Report: "User WiFi signal -72 dBm (poor), DNS response 450ms (ISP DNS slow). VPN tunnel latency 180ms due to WiFi retransmissions. Recommend: switch to 5 GHz band, use corporate DNS."
Workflow: BGP Hijack / Leak Detection
When validating BGP route security:
- BGP tests:
te_list_tests (community) filtered by BGP test type
- BGP results: Get BGP Test Results (official) — reachability from global monitors
- Route details: Get BGP Route Details (official) — AS paths from all vantage points
- Anomalies: unexpected AS in path? Prefix originated from wrong AS?
- Path vis: Get Full Path Visualization (official) — confirm traffic follows expected path
- Cross-reference:
pyats-routing for internal BGP state confirmation
- Report: BGP security assessment with route origin validation
Integration with Other Skills
| Skill | How They Work Together |
|---|
te-network-monitoring | Monitoring provides context (tests, dashboards), path analysis provides deep investigation |
pyats-routing | ThousandEyes external BGP + pyATS internal BGP = complete routing picture |
pyats-troubleshoot | ThousandEyes internet path + pyATS device-level CLI diagnostics |
meraki-security-appliance | ThousandEyes path through MX + Meraki VPN status for SD-WAN troubleshooting |
aws-network-ops | ThousandEyes cloud agent + AWS VPC flow logs for hybrid path analysis |
fmc-firewall-ops | ThousandEyes path vis shows traffic traversing FTD + FMC rule analysis |
servicenow-change-workflow | Outage events trigger ServiceNow incidents with ThousandEyes evidence |
gait-session-tracking | Record all path analysis and troubleshooting in GAIT |
Important Rules
- Instant Tests consume test units — use judiciously; each run counts against your ThousandEyes license
- Path visualization requires network layer tests — HTTP server tests won't show full path data
- BGP monitors are global — ThousandEyes has 300+ BGP vantage points; results reflect internet-wide routing
- Endpoint agents need permission — endpoint data is privacy-sensitive; respect data governance
- Time ranges matter — narrow queries to the incident window to reduce API load and improve relevance
- Record in GAIT — log all path analysis, outage investigations, and BGP findings
Environment Variables
TE_TOKEN — ThousandEyes API v7 OAuth bearer token (shared with te-network-monitoring)
