claudetools/.claude/skills/unifi-wifi/SKILL.md

name, description

name

description

unifi-wifi

Analyze and tune UniFi WiFi for performance + stability, especially in dense/congested environments. Audits AP/radio config and the neighbor-interference map from the UOS controller, flags issues (2.4GHz over-provisioning, channel width, min-RSSI/sticky clients, channel plan), and recommends prioritized changes. Works for any UniFi site on the UOS (172.16.3.29); Cascades is the hard case. Triggers: unifi wifi tuning, RF/airtime/channel analysis, 2.4GHz congestion, AP channel plan, sticky clients, wireless performance.

UniFi WiFi tuning (UOS sites)

Data-driven WiFi tuning for UniFi sites on the UOS Server (172.16.3.29). Goal: solid performance + stability for connected devices in congested environments by analyzing what the controller knows and making prioritized, validated changes. Built for any site; Cascades (77 APs, ~550 clients, brutal 2.4GHz) is the reference hard case.

Multi-client (any UOS site)

scripts/sites.sh lists all ~49 sites (APs/switches/gateways) + per-client AP-cred readiness — the entry point for pointing the skill at another client. Controller-side scripts (audit-site, live-stats, model-rank, optimize-radios, apply-radio) work on ANY site with zero per-client setup (shared controller creds) — pass the site name/desc/id. AP-side collectors (neighbor/survey/dfs/ watch-ap) additionally need that client's clients/<slug>/unifi-ap-ssh vaulted + L3 reach (site VPN); if missing they print the exact vault command and exit (controller-side still works). Default AP-cred path is Cascades — override with the script's vault-path arg per client.

Status (2026-06-15)

• [WORKING] WiFi monitoring + RF tuning — complete data-gathering for any UOS site/client: config + interference (audit-site), live per-AP + per-client (live-stats), airtime history
  • roam graph (model-rank/optimize-radios), measured per-channel occupancy (survey-collect), empirical DFS radar history (dfs-check), the AP-to-AP SNR neighbor matrix from /proc/ui_neighbor (neighbor-collect), per-AP live stream (watch-ap), and gated config apply (apply-radio). All site-parameterized → works on every UniFi site we monitor.
• [WIP] Switches / PoE, gateways / WAN / firewall, adoption, client DHCP/DNS — not yet wrapped as collectors. The access layer reaches them (the same uos-mongo.sh covers the whole ace DB; the controller API + device SSH reach switches/gateways) — these just need dedicated scripts. Use ad-hoc for now; productize as the need arises (or split into a sibling unifi skill).
• Per-client requirement: watch-ap/neighbor-collect/survey-collect/dfs-check default the AP device-auth SSH cred to clients/cascades-tucson/unifi-ap-ssh; for another client, vault its own clients/<x>/unifi-ap-ssh and pass it as the script's vault-path arg.

First, load context

• references/data-access.md — what data the UOS exposes and how to read it (the two planes: Mongo config/interference now, live Network API later).
• references/methodology.md — the prioritized tuning playbook (synthesized from a multi-model pass + live recon). Read before recommending any change.
• references/interference-model.md — design for the AP-interference / airtime-reduction model (which radios to disable / power down), incl. the data feasibility (needs Plane 2 + a collector — the signals aren't in Mongo).

What it does (current = Plane 1, read-only)

1. Audit a site — config + interference, no live plane needed:

   bash .claude/skills/unifi-wifi/scripts/audit-site.sh <site-name|site_id>
   bash .claude/skills/unifi-wifi/scripts/audit-site.sh cascades
   

   Outputs 2.4/5/6 config summary, the per-channel neighbor-density (interference) map, and flagged issues (2.4 over-provisioning, 40/80/160MHz width, off-1/6/11 channels, min-RSSI off, high power).
2. Rank airtime-reduction candidates — which radios to disable / power down, from real history (ace_stat: per-AP airtime cu_total/cu_interf/num_sta + the wifi_connectivity_event roam graph). Works for any band:

   bash .claude/skills/unifi-wifi/scripts/model-rank.sh <site> [days=7] [band=ng|na|6e|all]
   

   (Cascades 2.4: 75 radios at 74–94% utilization, 61–81% interference, ~1 client each → disable/power-down.)
3. Optimize (coverage-safe plan) — which radios to power-down (do first) vs disable (after), per band, without opening coverage holes or capacity cascades:

   bash .claude/skills/unifi-wifi/scripts/optimize-radios.sh <site> [days=14] [band=ng|na|6e]
   

   Coverage model = the roam graph (materials-aware: clients can't roam through Cascades' steel hallway walls, so the model never calls cross-wall APs redundant). Multi-model hardened (bidirectional roams, load-shift simulation, 40%/zone cap, stepwise). On Cascades 2.4 it recommends power-down on 74/75 radios (safe big win) and 0 disables until the live RF table proves redundancy — see interference-model.md.
4. Validate live (Plane 2) — current cu_total/satisfaction/per-AP RF, before+after a change, and the AP-to-AP RF-neighbor table that unlocks confident disables:

   bash .claude/skills/unifi-wifi/scripts/live-stats.sh <site> [--clients]
   

   Needs a read-only controller admin vaulted at infrastructure/uos-server-network-api (the script prints the one-time provisioning steps if it's missing).
   • Per-AP live watch (no controller lag) — SSH straight into an AP and stream channel-busy% + noise + clients/retries every ~2s, to watch a targeted change land in real time:

     bash .claude/skills/unifi-wifi/scripts/watch-ap.sh <ap-ip> [interval]
     

     Uses mca-dump + iw survey on the AP. Device-auth cred vaulted (clients/cascades-tucson/unifi-ap-ssh). Needs L3 reach to the AP (at Cascades: bring up the site VPN; APs are on 192.168.2.x/3.x) + local sshpass.
5. Interpret the flags against methodology.md (fix order: prune 2.4 -> shrink cells/power -> min data rates -> manual 1/6/11 plan -> min-RSSI + roaming -> steer to 6GHz).
6. Recommend a prioritized, per-zone change plan. Roll out per zone, not site-wide at once.

AP-side collectors (direct AP SSH over the site VPN — non-disruptive, foreground)

These read each AP directly (controller hides this data). All take <site> [ap-ssh-vault-path], use sshpass-or-SSH_ASKPASS auth, and must run in the foreground:

# AP-to-AP SNR neighbor matrix (/proc/ui_neighbor) -> redundancy = data-backed disable candidates.
# Set NBR_JSON to also emit a machine-readable adjacency, then feed it to optimize-radios.sh:
NBR_JSON=.claude/tmp/<site>-nbr.json bash .claude/skills/unifi-wifi/scripts/neighbor-collect.sh cascades
NEIGHBOR_JSON=.claude/tmp/<site>-nbr.json bash .claude/skills/unifi-wifi/scripts/optimize-radios.sh cascades 14 ng
#   ^ optimize-radios uses the measured SNR overlap (not the sparse roam graph) -> real DISABLE list.
bash .claude/skills/unifi-wifi/scripts/neighbor-collect.sh cascades [vault-path] [snr_min=20]
# measured per-channel busy%/noise per AP -> cleanest-channel plan (iw survey dump)
bash .claude/skills/unifi-wifi/scripts/survey-collect.sh cascades [vault-path]
# empirical DFS radar-event history per AP (dmesg) -> is DFS safe at this site?
bash .claude/skills/unifi-wifi/scripts/dfs-check.sh cascades [vault-path]

The neighbor matrix is the breakthrough: UniFi exposes managed-AP-to-managed-AP visibility nowhere in the controller API/DB (all filter our own APs), but each AP keeps it in /proc/ui_neighbor/{ess_ap_list,ssid/*}, populated non-disruptively by background RRM scanning.

Ad-hoc Mongo queries: .claude/scripts/uos-mongo.sh (recipes in data-access.md). Access is the vaulted dedicated key infrastructure/uos-server-ssh-key (works from any fleet machine).

The two data planes (know which you're using)

• Plane 1 — Mongo ace (available now, read-only via SSH): radio config (radio_table), the rogue neighbor-interference map, channelplan, AP/client inventory. Enough for the full config audit + channel/interference plan — covers the 2.4GHz "first problem".
• Plane 2 — live Network API (stat/device, stat/sta; NOT yet wired): live channel utilization (cu_total), per-client RSSI/SNR/retries, AP satisfaction. Needed to validate changes (before/after) and find the worst APs by live airtime. Wiring it needs a dedicated read-only UniFi admin or integration API key on .29, vaulted as infrastructure/uos-server-network-api. See data-access.md "Plane 2".

Applying changes — IMPORTANT boundary

Config changes are automated across many APs (no per-AP UI clicking) via the controller REST API (PUT .../rest/device/<id> radio_table) — scripts/apply-radio.sh. Actions (all radio_table):

bash .../apply-radio.sh <site> <ng|na|6e> power   low|medium|high|auto|<dBm>  [--zone Z] [--apply]
bash .../apply-radio.sh <site> <ng|na|6e> width   20|40|80|160                [--zone Z] [--apply]
bash .../apply-radio.sh <site> <ng|na|6e> channel <number>|auto               [--zone Z] [--apply]
bash .../apply-radio.sh <site> <ng|na|6e> minrssi off|on|-<NN>                [--zone Z] [--apply]
bash .../apply-radio.sh <site> <ng|na|6e> disable      # radio OFF (tx_power_mode=disabled)  [--ap NAME] [--apply]
bash .../apply-radio.sh <site> <ng|na|6e> enable       # radio ON  (tx_power_mode=auto)      [--ap NAME] [--apply]

--ap "<name>" targets a single AP (the right scope for disables — execute optimize-radios' disable list one AP at a time: optimize-radios ... -> for each, apply-radio <site> ng disable --ap <name> --apply). Dry-run (default) prints per-AP before->after + rollback values + the REST payload. Writes are GATED OFF until (1) infrastructure/uos-server-network-api-rw is vaulted (the root SSH key is the data plane, NOT an API write session) and (2) --apply is passed. Even then: rollback is auto-saved to .claude/tmp/apply-rollback-*.json, go one --zone at a time, validate live with watch-ap.sh before and after, and never auto channel-optimize in ultra-dense sites. WRITE PATH VALIDATED 2026-06-16 (apply->verify->revert + full disable/enable cycle on 0-client 6 GHz radios). Radio disable IS implemented = tx_power_mode:"disabled" (confirmed via UI-toggle + device-JSON diff); enable sets it back to auto. min-data-rate / band-steering live in wlanconf (not radio_table) — separate future apply path (see references/ROADMAP.md). Get explicit go before any write. Full roadmap: references/ROADMAP.md.

WLAN-level knobs — scripts/apply-wlan.sh (wlanconf, not radio_table; affects every AP on the WLAN — target with --wlan). Same gated REST path (rest/wlanconf), dry-run default, rollback saved:

bash .../apply-wlan.sh <site> minrate ng|na auto|off|<Mbps>  [--wlan NAME] [--apply]   # kill 1-11Mbps: minrate ng 12
bash .../apply-wlan.sh <site> steer  on|off                  [--wlan NAME] [--apply]   # 5GHz roaming-assistant

GOTCHA (handled): a manual min rate is only honored when minrate_setting_preference=manual — the script sets it; minrate ... auto hands rate management back to the controller. Write path validated 2026-06-16 on a 0-client WLAN (Green Valley Computer Club) — apply->verify->restore.

Roadmap

• Phase 1 (done): config + interference audit, flags, methodology. Read-only.
• Phase 2: wire the live Network API (Plane 2) for cu_total/satisfaction/per-client RF → before/after validation + "worst APs by airtime" ranking.
• Phase 3: assisted change application (per-zone, API-driven, with live before/after gating).

Notes

• The methodology is independent-model guidance + config-plane recon — validate against live stats before trusting any single recommendation, and roll out per zone.
• Multi-site: pass any site name/id; uos-mongo.sh --sites lists them. Cascades = 685f39068e65331c46ef6dd2.