| name | nbox-ipam-allocate |
| description | Reserve the next available IP or prefix in NetBox using nbox's three allocate write commands — ip reserve, prefix reserve, and ip-range reserve. Use when the user wants to allocate IP addresses or child prefixes from NetBox. |
nbox IPAM allocation
Three allocate write commands reserve the next available IP or prefix from
NetBox, server-side and race-safe. All share the same dry-run / confirm /
audit lifecycle (see the safe writes skill).
The three allocate commands
nbox ip reserve <prefix>
Reserve the next available IP address from a prefix.
nbox --no-tui ip reserve 10.0.0.0/24 --dry-run --json
nbox --no-tui ip reserve 10.0.0.0/24 --allow-writes --confirm --json
Optional: --vrf (scope the prefix), --description, --dns-name,
--message. The receipt's object is the created IP. Run nbox ip reserve --help for the full flag set.
nbox prefix reserve <cidr>
Reserve the next available child prefix from a parent prefix.
nbox --no-tui prefix 10.0.0.0/24 reserve --dry-run --json
nbox --no-tui prefix 10.0.0.0/24 reserve --length 26 --allow-writes --confirm --json
Optional: --length N (child prefix size), --vrf, --description, --message.
The receipt's object is the created prefix. Run nbox prefix reserve --help
for the full flag set.
nbox ip-range reserve <start|id>
Reserve the next available IP address from an IP range (not a prefix).
nbox --no-tui ip-range 10.0.0.10 reserve --dry-run --json
nbox --no-tui ip-range 10.0.0.10 reserve --allow-writes --confirm --json
Optional: --description, --dns-name, --message. The receipt's object is
the created IP. Run nbox ip-range reserve --help for the full flag set.
Key properties
- Server-allocated, race-safe. NetBox picks the address/block and never
hands out the same one twice. The plan carries no client precondition (no
ETag / last_updated) — the POST is authoritative.
- Dry-run advisory. The dry-run shows the currently next available
resource as an advisory warning. NetBox allocates at apply time, so the
applied resource may differ (another client could allocate between preview
and apply).
- Receipt carries the created object. The
--json apply receipt's object
field is the reserved IP or prefix view — scripts get the assigned resource
without a follow-up read.
- Exhaustion is a clean error. A 409 (prefix/range exhausted) or 400
(validation rejection) surfaces as exit 1, empty stdout, with the NetBox
error message on stderr.
Choosing a specific address
Choosing a specific address (not "next available") is deferred (ADR-0001
Decision 6) — it's a different operation (POST to /ipam/ip-addresses/, not
to /available-ips/) with different conflict semantics.
Reference
