| name | vmware-vdi |
| description | Use this skill whenever the user needs to operate a VMware/Omnissa Horizon VDI environment via its Connection Server: list and manage desktop pools, RDS farms and published apps, inspect and act on user sessions (log off, disconnect, send message), manage desktop machines (reset, maintenance, remove), view and change entitlements, read Horizon events/health/statistics, and push instant-clone golden images. Always use this skill for "log off VDI user", "reset this desktop", "why is the desktop pool not provisioning", "push the new image to the pool", "list Horizon sessions", "who is entitled to the pool", "VDI health" — when the context is explicitly Horizon / Omnissa / VDI / desktop-pool / RDS-farm. Do NOT use for the underlying vCenter VM lifecycle/power/snapshot/migrate (use vmware-aiops), read-only vSphere monitoring (use vmware-monitor), or NSX microsegmentation (use vmware-nsx-security). This skill manages the Horizon broker layer; vmware-aiops manages the vCenter VMs backing the desktops.
|
| installer | {"kind":"uv","package":"vmware-vdi"} |
| allowed-tools | ["Bash"] |
| metadata | {"openclaw":{"requires":{"env":"[Truncated]","bins":"[Truncated]","config":"[Truncated]"},"primaryEnv":"VMWARE_VDI_CONFIG"}} |
VMware VDI (Horizon)
Disclaimer: Community-maintained open-source project, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or
sponsored by VMware, Inc., Broadcom Inc., or Omnissa, LLC. "VMware", "Horizon", and "Omnissa" are
trademarks of their respective owners. Source is publicly auditable under the MIT license.
Horizon VDI intelligent operations for the VMware skill family — desktop pools, RDS farms, user
sessions, desktop machines, entitlements, events/health/statistics, and instant-clone image push,
through the Horizon 8 Connection Server REST API (primary; also targets the latest Omnissa Horizon,
which shares the same /rest/v1 API lineage).
Companion skills: vmware-aiops (the vCenter VMs backing
the desktops), vmware-monitor (read-only vSphere),
vmware-nsx-security (desktop microsegmentation).
Status: v1.0.0 (beta). Endpoints are verified against the official Horizon Server API; GET-response
field projections are defensive and pending validation against a live Connection Server (run
vmware-vdi init on a real Horizon once to confirm). Governed by the family harness (audit + policy +
teaching errors); authorization is delegated to the Horizon admin account's role.
What This Skill Does
| Category | Tools | Count | Read/Write |
|---|
| Monitoring | health summary, session list/get, machine list/get, event list | 6 | 6 R |
| Statistics | session concurrency stats, per-pool utilization | 2 | 2 R |
| Management | pool list/get, farm list, app-pool list, entitlement list, image list, AD search; pool enable/disable, entitlement add/remove | 9 | 7 R / 2 W |
| Ops actions | session logoff/disconnect/message, machine reset/maintenance/remove | 6 | 6 W |
| Tasks | task status; image push, task cancel | 3 | 1 R / 2 W |
27 MCP tools (16 read / 11 write). Reads are strictly non-destructive. Writes preview their blast
radius, are double-confirmed at the CLI, and are audit-logged.
Quick Install
uv tool install vmware-vdi
vmware-vdi init
vmware-vdi doctor
When to Use This Skill
Use vmware-vdi for the Horizon broker layer: desktop pools, RDS farms, published apps, user
sessions (logoff/disconnect/message), desktop machine state (reset/maintenance/remove), entitlements,
Horizon events/health/statistics, and instant-clone image push — when the context is explicitly
Horizon / Omnissa / VDI / desktop-pool / RDS-farm.
Do NOT use when: the task is the underlying vCenter VM (power/snapshot/clone/migrate → vmware-aiops),
read-only vSphere inventory/alarms (→ vmware-monitor), or NSX microsegmentation of the desktops
(→ vmware-nsx-security). A Horizon desktop's backing VM is aiops; the session/pool/broker is vdi.
Related Skills — Skill Routing
| The user wants… | Skill |
|---|
| Log off / reset / re-image a Horizon desktop or session | vmware-vdi (this) |
| Power/snapshot/clone/migrate the backing vCenter VM | vmware-aiops |
| Read-only vSphere inventory / alarms / host health | vmware-monitor |
| Microsegment the desktop pool network | vmware-nsx-security |
| Multi-step VDI workflow with approval + rollback | vmware-pilot |
Common Workflows
1. Help-desk: a user's desktop is stuck.
vmware-vdi session list --user alice # find their session + state
vmware-vdi machine list --state AGENT_UNREACHABLE # is the desktop broken?
vmware-vdi session logoff --user alice --dry-run # preview blast radius (which sessions)
vmware-vdi session logoff --user alice # double-confirm, then logs off + audits
Failure branch: if session list returns a teaching 404/auth error, run vmware-vdi doctor — a
read-only Horizon role is enough for the reads but the account must be able to reach the Connection Server.
2. Patch night: push a new golden image to a pool.
vmware-vdi image list # find the base VM + snapshot
vmware-vdi pool push-image --id pool-fin --dry-run # BLAST RADIUS: N desktops, M logged-in users
vmware-vdi pool set-enabled --id pool-fin --disable # optional: stop new logins first
vmware-vdi pool push-image --id pool-fin # double-confirm; returns a task
vmware-vdi task status --pool pool-fin # track progress
Failure branch: if the preview shows logged-in users you did not expect, session send-message --user …
to warn them, or push with --force-logoff only after confirming impact.
3. Onboard a group to a pool.
vmware-vdi ad-search "Finance" # resolve the AD group → its SID
vmware-vdi entitlement add --pool pool-fin --sid <SID>
vmware-vdi entitlement list --pool pool-fin # verify
Failure branch: ad-search returning nothing usually means the domain in ~/.vmware-vdi/config.yaml
is wrong — re-run vmware-vdi init --force.
Usage Mode
- CLI — interactive help-desk work, scripting, small/local models (lower context cost).
- MCP — agent-driven operations with structured output; run
vmware-vdi mcp (an installed console
script, so no uvx network re-resolve — works through enterprise TLS proxies).
MCP Tools (27 — 16 read, 11 write)
| Category | Tools | R/W |
|---|
| Monitoring | health_summary, session_list, session_get, machine_list, machine_get, event_list | Read |
| Statistics | session_stats, pool_utilization | Read |
| Management (read) | pool_list, pool_get, farm_list, app_pool_list, entitlement_list, image_list, ad_user_search | Read |
| Tasks (read) | task_status | Read |
| Ops actions | session_logoff, session_disconnect, session_send_message, machine_reset, machine_maintenance, machine_remove | Write |
| Management (write) | pool_set_enabled, entitlement_add, entitlement_remove | Write |
| Tasks (write) | pool_push_image, task_cancel | Write |
List envelope: every *_list tool returns {items, returned, limit, total, truncated, hint} — read
rows from items and check truncated before concluding a listing is complete; empty items with
truncated:false means checked-and-none, not a failure. Lists are fetched with server-side pagination.
Blast radius (normative): pool_push_image recreates every desktop in the pool — the highest
single-call blast radius in the family. Its preview states affected-desktop and in-session-user counts
before any confirm. session_logoff / machine_reset / machine_remove state their affected users/
machines and require double confirmation at the CLI.
Read/write split: 16 read-only tools ([READ] docstring marker), 11 modify state. All writes are
audit-logged; destructive ones (session_logoff, machine_reset, machine_remove, pool_set_enabled
disable, entitlement_remove, pool_push_image, task_cancel) require CLI double-confirmation and
support --dry-run.
CLI Quick Reference
vmware-vdi init
vmware-vdi health
vmware-vdi stats
vmware-vdi utilization
vmware-vdi session list [--user U] [--pool P] [--state CONNECTED]
vmware-vdi session logoff --user U [--dry-run]
vmware-vdi machine list [--pool P] [--state AGENT_UNREACHABLE]
vmware-vdi machine reset --id M [--dry-run]
vmware-vdi machine maintenance --id M --enter|--exit
vmware-vdi pool list
vmware-vdi pool set-enabled --id P --enable|--disable
vmware-vdi pool push-image --id P [--force-logoff] [--dry-run]
vmware-vdi task status --pool P [--task T]
vmware-vdi ad-search "<name>"
vmware-vdi entitlement add|remove --pool P --sid <SID>
Full list: references/cli-reference.md.
Troubleshooting
Password not found. Set environment variable: VMWARE_VDI_<TARGET>_PASSWORD — run vmware-vdi init
(writes ~/.vmware-vdi/.env, 0600), or export the var manually.- Login fails (HTTP 401/400) — check
username/domain in ~/.vmware-vdi/config.yaml; Horizon
authenticates against the AD domain. A local Connection Server admin leaves domain blank.
certificate could not be verified — for a self-signed lab cert set verify_ssl: false for that
target in the config.- A write is refused with "read-only role" — that is RBAC working as designed. Point the target at a
Horizon admin role with write privilege, or keep the read-only account for read commands only.
session list --pool or a push-image preview shows 0 where you expect users — on your Horizon
version a field name may differ; this is a beta known-limitation, please file an issue with the raw
session_get output so the projection can be pinned.
Audit & Safety
- Source Code — https://github.com/zw008/VMware-VDI (MIT).
- Config File Contents —
config.yaml holds host/username/domain only; passwords live in
~/.vmware-vdi/.env (0600, obfuscated to b64: at rest — obfuscation, not encryption).
- Webhook Data Scope — none. This skill makes no outbound calls except to the configured
Connection Server.
- TLS Verification — on by default;
verify_ssl: false is per-target and only for self-signed labs.
- Prompt Injection Protection — all Connection-Server-supplied text (user names, machine/pool names,
event messages) passes through
vmware_policy.sanitize() (truncation + control-char stripping).
- Least Privilege — authorization is the Horizon account's job: a read-only Horizon admin role
refuses every write at the Connection Server, un-bypassably. All writes are recorded in
~/.vmware/audit.db. See references/setup-guide.md.
License
MIT
