NetSentry: Next-Generation Network Configuration Validator

NetSentry is an enterprise-grade, deterministic configuration validation suite designed for immutable infrastructure deployments, automated compliance verification, and rigorous security posture enforcement across heterogeneous network environments.

Architecture and Capabilities

NetSentry parses raw, proprietary device configurations into canonical, vendor-agnostic infrastructure models. These models are subsequently evaluated against declarative, YAML-based policies utilizing a highly concurrent, multi-threaded execution engine.

Core Features

• Vendor-Agnostic Parsing: Native lexing and parsing engines for Cisco IOS, Cisco NX-OS, Juniper JunOS, and Arista EOS, translating vendor-specific syntax into canonical ConfigModel representations.
• Deterministic Evaluation Engine: A robust policy execution runtime utilizing a channel-based worker pool for concurrent rule evaluation, ensuring predictable and rapid validation across extensive rule sets.
• Declarative Policy DSL: A structured Domain Specific Language (DSL) defining validation requirements through explicit match strategies (contains, not_contains, regex, required_block) and remediation actions.
• Topology Graph Analysis: Multi-device adjacency inference and Depth-First Search (DFS) topology traversal to definitively identify routing loops, asymmetric paths, subnet overlaps, and duplicate addressing.
• Cryptographic Drift Detection: SHA-256 state hashing and differential analysis to detect and quantify configuration drift against established baselines, facilitating strict change control.
• Comprehensive Reporting Pipeline: Pluggable output generation supporting human-readable formatted tables, structured JSON/YAML for programmatic consumption, and static HTML reports.
• Extensible Operator Interfaces: A unified Command Line Interface (CLI) application and an embedded HTTP REST API server, supporting diverse execution environments from local terminals to automated CI/CD pipelines.
• Robust Observability: System integration with Prometheus metrics and OpenTelemetry tracing, providing deep insight into validation durations, rule execution frequencies, and subsystem latencies.

Operational Paradigms

NetSentry accommodates multiple execution vectors:

1. Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): Validating proposed configuration changes prior to deployment.
2. Audit and Compliance: Generating point-in-time compliance reports against established framework baselines (e.g., CIS Benchmarks).
3. Post-Deployment Verification: Ensuring operational device states accurately reflect the intended infrastructure-as-code definitions.

Project Navigation

Comprehensive technical documentation is localized within the docs/ directory:

Document	Purpose and Scope
Architecture Reference	Component-level architectural design, dependency graphs, and temporal data flow diagrams.
Algorithm Specifications	Pseudocode implementations of the core validation pipeline, graph traversal, and drift computation mechanics.
API Integration Guide	Exhaustive documentation of the HTTP REST API endpoints, request models, and response structures.
CLI Usage Reference	Exhaustive documentation of command-line interfaces, subcommands, flags, exit codes, and robust troubleshooting matrices.
Policy DSL Specification	Syntax and semantic rules governing the YAML Policy DSL, including match evaluators, declarative loops, and operational consequences.
Plugin SDK Development	Interfaces and methodologies for extending parsing capabilities or integrating bespoke programmatic validation logic.
Developer Guidelines	Procedures for establishing local development environments, executing test suites, and adhering to stylistic conventions.
Security Posture	Declarations on secret handling, runtime security contexts, and vulnerability disclosure protocols.
Contribution Protocol	Requirements for formulating pull requests, conventional commit guidelines, and integration testing mandates.

Quick Start Subroutine Execution

# Compile the static binary for the host architecture
make build

# Execute validation against a configuration block
./bin/netsentry validate --config test_router.conf --policy standard.yaml --format table

# Initiate topological relationship inference
./bin/netsentry topology --config router_A.conf --config router_B.conf

Compilation and Deployment

Initialize the build process using the included Makefile directives. Detailed deployment configurations for Docker and Kubernetes environments are available within the deployments/ directory.

Licensing Considerations

This software is distributed under the terms of the Apache License, version 2.0. Refer to the LICENSE file for full legal stipulations.