MCP lnav CAN bus Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes lnav log file analysis capabilities to AI assistants, specifically optimized for Kvaser Plain Text Log Frame CAN bus log processing.

Overview

This Python-based MCP server provides session-based access to CAN bus log files with structured JSON output, enabling AI models to analyze, query, and extract insights from Kvaser CAN bus logs through the Model Context Protocol.

Architecture

┌─────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐
│  MCP Client         │────▶│  MCP Server          │────▶│  lnav CLI       │
│  (Claude, Cursor)   │◀────│  (Python, stdio)     │◀────│  (v0.12.0+)     │
└─────────────────────┘     └──────────────────────┘     └─────────────────┘
                                   │
                                   ▼
                            ┌──────────────────────┐
                            │  Session Manager     │
                            │  (stateful context)  │
                            └──────────────────────┘
                                   │
                                   ▼
                            ┌──────────────────────┐
                            │  Kvaser CAN Logs     │
                            │  (.txt, .log)        │
                            └──────────────────────┘

Requirements

Runtime Dependencies

• Python: 3.10 or higher
• lnav: 0.12.0 or higher (must be installed and available in PATH)
• MCP Python SDK: 2.0.0+ (v2 beta) or 1.27+ (v1 stable)

Supported Log Format

Primary Format: Kvaser Plain Text Log Frame

# Column format: Timestamp Channel Type Dir ID DLC Data
0.000000 0        Rx   std 0x123 8 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07
0.001000 0        Tx   std 0x456 8 AA BB CC DD EE FF 00 11

Also Supported (via lnav auto-detection):

• Vector ASC
• CANalyzer TRC
• Generic CSV with timestamp/channel/id/data columns

Installation

1. Install lnav

# macOS
brew install lnav

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install lnav

# Or download from https://github.com/tstack/lnav/releases

Verify installation:

lnav --version

2. Install the MCP Server

# Using pip
pip install mcp-lnav-canbus

# Using uv
uv add mcp-lnav-canbus

Configuration

Claude Desktop

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Linux: ~/.config/claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lnav-canbus": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "mcp_lnav_canbus"],
      "env": {
        "LNAV_PATH": "/usr/local/bin/lnav"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json in project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lnav-canbus": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "mcp_lnav_canbus"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/your/project",
      "env": {
        "LNAV_PATH": "/usr/local/bin/lnav"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code (with MCP extension)

.vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "lnav-canbus": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "mcp_lnav_canbus"]
    }
  }
}

Tools

open_can_log

Open a Kvaser CAN bus log file in the current session.

Parameters:

• file_path (string, required): Path to the Kvaser CAN log file
• session_id (string, optional): Session identifier (auto-generated if not provided)

Example:

{
  "name": "open_can_log",
  "arguments": {
    "file_path": "/data/can_trace.txt"
  }
}

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "session_id": "sess_abc123",
  "file_info": {
    "path": "/data/can_trace.txt",
    "format": "kvaser",
    "message_count": 15420,
    "time_range": {
      "start": "2024-01-15T10:00:00.000000",
      "end": "2024-01-15T10:05:30.123456"
    },
    "channel_count": 2,
    "unique_ids": 47
  }
}

query_can_messages

Execute SQL queries against CAN bus log data using lnav's SQL engine.

Parameters:

• query (string, required): SQLite query to execute
• limit (integer, optional, default: 100): Maximum rows to return

Example:

{
  "name": "query_can_messages",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "SELECT can_id, COUNT(*) as count FROM log GROUP BY can_id ORDER BY count DESC LIMIT 10"
  }
}

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "columns": ["can_id", "count"],
  "rows": [
    ["0x123", 1542],
    ["0x456", 987],
    ["0x789", 654]
  ],
  "row_count": 3,
  "execution_time_ms": 45
}

extract_can_frames

Extract specific CAN frames by ID, channel, or time range.

Parameters:

• can_id (string, optional): CAN ID to filter (hex format, e.g., '0x123')
• channel (integer, optional): CAN channel number (0-based)
• start_time (string, optional): Start timestamp
• end_time (string, optional): End timestamp
• limit (integer, optional, default: 1000): Maximum frames to return

Example:

{
  "name": "extract_can_frames",
  "arguments": {
    "can_id": "0x123",
    "start_time": "0.000000",
    "end_time": "1.000000",
    "limit": 100
  }
}

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "frames": [
    {
      "timestamp": "0.000000",
      "channel": 0,
      "type": "Rx",
      "can_id": "0x123",
      "dlc": 8,
      "data": [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
    }
  ],
  "frame_count": 1,
  "total_matching": 154
}

get_statistics

Generate statistical analysis of CAN bus traffic.

Parameters:

• stat_type (string, required): "frequency", "timing", "load", "errors", or "summary"
• interval (string, optional): Time interval for aggregation (e.g., '1s', '100ms')
• can_id (string, optional): CAN ID to filter statistics

Example:

{
  "name": "get_statistics",
  "arguments": {
    "stat_type": "frequency",
    "interval": "1s"
  }
}

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "stat_type": "frequency",
  "statistics": {
    "by_id": [
      {"can_id": "0x123", "count": 1542, "rate_hz": 100.0},
      {"can_id": "0x456", "count": 987, "rate_hz": 64.2}
    ],
    "total_messages": 15420,
    "duration_seconds": 330.123456,
    "average_rate_hz": 46.7
  }
}

find_errors

Find error frames and anomalies in CAN bus logs.

Parameters:

• error_type (string, optional, default: "all"): "all", "crc", "bit", "stuff", "form", "ack", "timeout", or "gap"
• channel (integer, optional): Channel filter

Example:

{
  "name": "find_errors",
  "arguments": {
    "error_type": "crc"
  }
}

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "errors": [
    {
      "timestamp": "1.234567",
      "channel": 0,
      "error_type": "crc",
      "can_id": "0x123",
      "message": "CRC error detected"
    }
  ],
  "error_count": 1,
  "error_rate_per_minute": 0.18
}

analyze_payload_noise

Analyze CAN bus payload repetition to detect noise in logs using MD5 hashes. This tool identifies repeated payloads that may represent noise or meaningless data in the log.

Parameters:

• min_repetitions (integer, optional, default: 10): Minimum number of repetitions to consider as noise
• session_id (string, optional): Session identifier

Example:

{
  "name": "analyze_payload_noise",
  "arguments": {
    "min_repetitions": 5
  }
}

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "analysis": {
    "total_frames": 1000,
    "unique_payloads": 25,
    "noise_patterns_found": 3,
    "total_noisy_frames": 850,
    "noise_percentage": 85.0,
    "min_repetitions_threshold": 5
  },
  "noise_patterns": [
    {
      "payload_md5": "0ee0646c1c77d8131cc8f4ee65c7673b",
      "repetition_count": 500,
      "payload_hex": "01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08",
      "first_timestamp": "0.000000",
      "last_timestamp": "10.500000",
      "time_span_seconds": 10.5,
      "can_ids": ["0x123"],
      "channels": [0],
      "noise_ratio": 0.5
    }
  ]
}

scan_payload_for_value

Scan CAN bus payload bytes for a specific decimal value. Searches for frames where consecutive bytes in the payload match the binary representation of the given decimal value. Supports both big-endian and little-endian byte orders.

Parameters:

• byte_value (integer, required): Decimal value to search for (0 to unlimited, auto-calculates byte width)
• endianness (string, optional, default: "big"): Byte order ("big" or "little")
• start_offset (integer, optional, default: 0): Start searching from this byte offset
• end_offset (integer, optional, default: None): Stop searching at this byte offset (None searches to end)
• limit (integer, optional, default: 1000): Maximum frames to return
• session_id (string, optional): Session identifier

Example:

{
  "name": "scan_payload_for_value",
  "arguments": {
    "byte_value": 65535,
    "endianness": "big",
    "limit": 10
  }
}

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "search_criteria": {
    "byte_value": 65535,
    "endianness": "big",
    "start_offset": 0,
    "end_offset": null,
    "byte_width": 2,
    "target_bytes_hex": "FF FF"
  },
  "matches": [
    {
      "timestamp": "0.001000",
      "channel": 0,
      "type": "Tx",
      "direction": "std",
      "can_id": "0x456",
      "dlc": 8,
      "data": [170, 187, 255, 255, 238, 239, 0, 17],
      "payload_hex": "AA BB FF FF EE EF 00 11",
      "match_position": 2,
      "match_bytes": [255, 255],
      "byte_width": 2
    }
  ],
  "match_count": 1,
  "frames_scanned": 10,
  "frames_skipped_too_short": 0
}

Use Cases:

• Find frames containing specific sensor values (e.g., temperature = 255)
• Search for error codes encoded in payload bytes
• Locate frames with specific multi-byte values (e.g., 16-bit counters, 32-bit timestamps)
• Debug communication issues by finding frames with unexpected byte patterns

get_session_info

Retrieve information about the current session state.

Parameters: None

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "session_id": "sess_abc123",
  "files_loaded": [
    {
      "path": "/data/can_trace.txt",
      "format": "kvaser",
      "message_count": 15420,
      "loaded_at": "2024-01-15T14:30:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "active_filters": [],
  "lnav_version": "0.12.0",
  "session_duration_seconds": 120
}

close_session

Close the current session and release resources.

Parameters: None

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "session_id": "sess_abc123",
  "message": "Session closed successfully"
}

Resources

The server provides the following MCP resources:

canbus://session/{session_id}/log

Access the current session's loaded log file content.

Example URI: canbus://session/sess_abc123/log

canbus://session/{session_id}/messages/{can_id}

Access specific CAN ID messages from the session.

Example URI: canbus://session/sess_abc123/messages/0x123

canbus://session/{session_id}/errors

Access error frames from the session's log file.

Example URI: canbus://session/sess_abc123/errors

Prompts

canbus-analyze

Generate a comprehensive analysis of a Kvaser CAN bus log file.

Parameters:

• file_path (string, required): Path to the Kvaser CAN log file
• analysis_type (string, optional): "quick", "detailed", "errors", "traffic", or "custom" (default: "detailed")
• focus_ids (array, optional): List of CAN IDs to focus analysis on

Example:

/canbus-analyze file_path="/data/can_trace.txt" analysis_type="detailed"

canbus-decode-frame

Help decode and interpret a specific CAN frame.

Parameters:

• can_id (string, required): CAN ID to decode
• data_bytes (array, required): Data bytes to decode
• dbc_file (string, optional): Path to DBC file for signal decoding

Example:

/canbus-decode-frame can_id="0x123" data_bytes=[0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7]

Session Lifecycle

Session Creation

1. Client initiates MCP connection via stdio
2. Server creates session context with unique session ID
3. Server spawns lnav process for the session
4. Session state initialized (empty file list, no filters)

Session Usage

1. Client calls open_can_log to load a file
2. Server loads file into lnav, updates session state
3. Client makes queries using session context
4. Server maintains lnav process and state between calls

Session Termination

1. Client calls close_session or disconnects
2. Server terminates lnav process
3. Server releases session resources
4. Session state cleared

Server Configuration

Transport

Transport Protocol: stdio only

The server communicates via standard input/output streams, suitable for local CLI integration and subprocess spawning.

Session Management

The server maintains session-based state between calls:

• Each client connection establishes a session context
• Session persists for the lifetime of the MCP connection
• Loaded files remain in session memory for subsequent queries
• Session state includes: loaded files, active filters, query history, lnav process handle

Path Validation

Pass-through to lnav: The server does not validate file paths. Path validation and error handling is delegated to lnav, which returns appropriate error messages for invalid paths.

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
LNAV_PATH	Path to lnav binary	lnav (from PATH)
LNAV_TIMEOUT	Default timeout for lnav operations (seconds)	30
MAX_SESSION_COUNT	Maximum concurrent sessions	10
LOG_LEVEL	Logging verbosity	INFO

Server Startup

# Basic usage
python -m mcp_lnav_canbus

# With custom lnav path
LNAV_PATH=/usr/local/bin/lnav python -m mcp_lnav_canbus

# With debug logging
LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG python -m mcp_lnav_canbus

Error Handling

Error Response Format

{
  "success": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "FILE_NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "File not found: /path/to/log.txt",
    "details": {
      "path": "/path/to/log.txt",
      "lnav_error": "Unable to open file"
    }
  }
}

Error Codes

Code	Description
FILE_NOT_FOUND	Specified file path does not exist
INVALID_FORMAT	Log file format not recognized
QUERY_ERROR	SQL query syntax error
SESSION_ERROR	Session not found or expired
LNAV_ERROR	lnav process error
TIMEOUT	Operation timed out
INTERNAL_ERROR	Internal server error

Usage Examples

Example 1: Basic Log Analysis

// Request
{
  "tool": "open_can_log",
  "arguments": {
    "file_path": "/data/can_trace.txt"
  }
}

// Response
{
  "success": true,
  "session_id": "sess_abc123",
  "file_info": {
    "path": "/data/can_trace.txt",
    "format": "kvaser",
    "message_count": 15420,
    "time_range": {
      "start": "2024-01-15T10:00:00.000000",
      "end": "2024-01-15T10:05:30.123456"
    },
    "channel_count": 2,
    "unique_ids": 47
  }
}

Example 2: Query by CAN ID

// Request
{
  "tool": "query_can_messages",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "SELECT can_id, COUNT(*) as count FROM log GROUP BY can_id ORDER BY count DESC LIMIT 10"
  }
}

// Response
{
  "success": true,
  "columns": ["can_id", "count"],
  "rows": [
    ["0x123", 1542],
    ["0x456", 987],
    ["0x789", 654]
  ],
  "row_count": 3
}

Example 3: Error Detection

// Request
{
  "tool": "find_errors",
  "arguments": {
    "error_type": "all"
  }
}

// Response
{
  "success": true,
  "errors": [
    {
      "timestamp": "1.234567",
      "channel": 0,
      "error_type": "crc",
      "can_id": "0x123",
      "message": "CRC error detected"
    }
  ],
  "error_count": 1,
  "error_rate_per_minute": 0.18
}

Security Considerations

• Server runs with same permissions as host process
• File access limited to paths provided in tool calls
• No network access performed (stdio transport only)
• SQL queries executed in sandboxed lnav session
• Session isolation prevents cross-session data access
• Command injection prevented via parameterized queries

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

lnav not found:

Error: LNAV_PATH not set or lnav not in PATH
Solution: Set LNAV_PATH environment variable or install lnav

Invalid log format:

Error: INVALID_FORMAT
Solution: Ensure log file is Kvaser Plain Text Log Frame format

Session timeout:

Error: SESSION_ERROR
Solution: Check session_id is valid and session hasn't expired

Query syntax error:

Error: QUERY_ERROR
Solution: Verify SQLite syntax in query parameter

Performance Considerations

• Large log files indexed on open (progress reported to client)
• SQL queries executed via lnav's SQLite integration
• Result limiting prevents memory exhaustion
• Timeout enforcement prevents hung operations

Limitations

• Binary formats (BLF, MF4) require external conversion tools
• Real-time log tailing is not supported (batch processing only)
• DBC signal decoding requires external DBC parser integration
• Maximum file size recommendations apply for performance

Development

Running in Development Mode

Use the MCP Inspector to test the server:

uv run mcp dev server.py

Testing

# Run tests
pytest tests/

# Run with coverage
pytest --cov=mcp_lnav_canbus tests/

Version Compatibility

Component	Minimum Version	Recommended Version
Python	3.10	3.11+
lnav	0.12.0	0.14.0+
MCP SDK	1.27.0 or 2.0.0b1	2.0.0b1+

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see our Contributing Guide for details.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• lnav - Log File Navigator by Timothy Stack
• Model Context Protocol - MCP specification
• MCP Python SDK - Python implementation

Resources

• lnav Documentation
• MCP Specification
• MCP Python SDK Docs
• Kvaser Format Reference