Network Knowledge Base

A self-hosted, single-repo network reference for CLI command lookups, cheat sheets, and a toolkit of network utilities.

Everything is static HTML + ES modules. Edits you make in the admin UI commit back to the hosting repo via the GitHub Contents API, so the next page load in any browser sees them.

Features

• Commands — 6,600+ CLI commands across 19 platforms: Linux, Cisco IOS, Cisco IOS-XE Switch, NetScaler, NetScaler SDX, Cisco Catalyst 9800 WLC, Cisco IOS-XE Router, Wireshark, Palo Alto PAN-OS, OpenSSL, Cisco Nexus, Proxmox VE, Aruba AOS-CX, Cisco ASA, Aruba Mobility Controller, Windows, VMware ESXi, AWS CLI, and Aruba AP / Instant. Search, filter by platform or command type, favourites, recents, copy, and bulk CSV import/export.
• Toolkit — Subnet calculator (IPv4 + IPv6, supernet split), ping script builder (PowerShell / cmd / bash), DNS resolve script builder, AI-powered regex builder, scientific calculator, cheat sheets (TCP/UDP ports, IP protocols, multicast, IPv4/IPv6 specials, public allocations, admin distances, acronyms), world clock.
• Settings — Password-encrypted admin settings holding the GitHub PAT and a rotating ring of AI API keys (used by the regex builder).

Repo layout

index.html              app shell
css/                    main / components / themes
js/
  app.js                bootstrap + router
  state.js              central store + event bus
  prefs.js              per-viewer prefs (localStorage)
  utils.js              helpers (esc, hlText, copy, toast, debounce)
  dataloader.js         manifest + JSON fetchers
  crypto.js             PBKDF2 + AES-GCM (planned)
  api/                  github, ai, keyring (planned)
  auth/                 edit-mode + bootstrap wizard (planned)
  pages/                commands, toolkit, settings
  toolkit/              subnet, ping, dns, regex, calculator, cheatsheets, worldclock
  components/           modal, command-list, bulk-toolbar, csv
data/
  manifest.json         cache-bust timestamps
  commands.json         command database
  cheatsheets/*.json    static cheat sheets
  settings.enc.json     encrypted admin settings
scripts/
  migrate-v12.mjs       one-shot v12 → commands.json migration

Running locally

Module scripts require HTTP, not file://. Any static server works:

npx http-server . -p 5500 -c-1 --silent
# or
python -m http.server 5500

Open http://localhost:5500. The command database loads from data/commands.json; per-viewer prefs (theme, font size, favourites, recent, collapsed sections, clock zones) live in localStorage under nkb.prefs.v1.

Deploying

1. Push the repo to GitHub.
2. In Settings → Pages, set source to main / root.
3. Wait for the first Pages build; the site is live at https://<owner>.github.io/<repo>/.
4. On first load the bootstrap wizard walks you through setting the admin password, the GitHub PAT, and the first AI key. It commits data/settings.enc.json and empty data stubs to the repo.

Admin edit flow

1. Click Edit in the header → enter admin password.
2. The app decrypts data/settings.enc.json and activates edit UI across pages.
3. Make changes; each page shows a pending-changes banner.
4. Click Save. The app uses the decrypted PAT to commit the updated JSON via the GitHub Contents API with one descriptive commit per save (for multi-file changes, via the Git Data API for atomicity).
5. Click Lock (or wait for the 30-minute session timeout) to clear the key from memory.

The PAT needs contents:write on this repo only — a fine-grained token scoped to the repo is ideal.

CSV import / export (commands)

Format

Header row (exact):

platform_key,platform_label,section,command,description,type

Example valid rows:

platform_key,platform_label,section,command,description,type
netscaler,NetScaler,System & Status,show ns info,Display system info,show
netscaler,NetScaler,System & Status,show ns runningconfig,Print running config,show
cisco_ios,Cisco IOS,Routing,show ip route,Print IPv4 routing table,show
cisco_ios,Cisco IOS,Interfaces,interface GigabitEthernet0/1,Enter interface config,config

Field rules

Field	Required	Notes
platform_key	yes	Stable key (netscaler, cisco_ios, asa, ...)
platform_label	yes	Display name. New if platform key doesn't exist
section	yes	Created if it doesn't exist
command	yes	CLI command text
description	no	Free text; embed commas by quoting the field
type	yes	One of show / config / troubleshooting

Common mistakes

# MISSING HEADER ROW — first row interpreted as data
netscaler,NetScaler,System & Status,show ns info,Display system info,show

# WRONG COLUMN ORDER — "show" and "System & Status" swapped
netscaler,NetScaler,show,show ns info,Display system info,System & Status

# UNQUOTED COMMA IN DESCRIPTION — splits into 7 fields
netscaler,NetScaler,System & Status,show ns info,Display system info, CPU and memory,show

# INVALID TYPE — must be show / config / troubleshooting
netscaler,NetScaler,System & Status,show ns info,Display system info,display

The import preview modal shows:

• To add: new rows the importer will insert
• Duplicates: exact matches on platform_key + section + command (skipped)
• Errors: rows failing validation, with line numbers

Round-trip is safe — exported CSV re-imports cleanly with 100% duplicate skip.

Migration from v12

node scripts/migrate-v12.mjs ../network_kb_v12.html data/commands.json

The script sandboxes an eval of the RAW literal, converts the legacy 3-tuple command arrays to {cmd, desc, type, flagged} objects, and writes a v2 shape.

Keyboard shortcuts

• / — focus the command search box
• Esc — close modal / clear search
• Ctrl/Cmd + K — open quick nav (planned)

Privacy

• No analytics, no third-party scripts, no cookies.
• AI API keys live in data/settings.enc.json encrypted with PBKDF2-SHA256 (600k iter) + AES-GCM. Plaintext is only ever in memory during an edit session. Keys never appear in the DOM or network traffic for unauthenticated viewers.
• Personal prefs (theme, favourites, clock zones) are in localStorage; they never commit to the repo.

License

MIT.