agent

Transaction Log Agent

Track RPM transactions on your datacenter

This repository contains the code for the Agent, which compiles transactional data and sends it to a central server, enabling real-time monitoring and analytics. By aggregating and processing package history, the Agent provides actionable insights for system administrators to optimize their RPM-based systems.

This agent also implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing AI assistants and LLMs to directly query the transaction logs. Through MCP, the agent exposes tools to search package history, analyze installation trends, and retrieve system state information, enabling natural language questions about your infrastructure's package management history.

Installation

sudo dnf localinstall -y https://rpm.rda.run/repo.rpm
sudo dnf install -y txlog

Configuration

You need to set your Txlog Server address on /etc/txlog.yaml file.

server:
  url: https://txlog-server.example.com:8080
  # If your server requires API key authentication,
  # uncomment and configure the API key below
  # api_key: txlog_your_api_key_here
  # If your server requires basic authentication,
  # uncomment and configure username and password below
  # username: bob_tables
  # password: correct-horse-battery-staple

[!IMPORTANT] API Key Compatibility: API key authentication requires Txlog Server version 1.14.0 or higher. If you configure an API key, the agent will automatically check the server version on startup and fail with a clear error message if the server version is incompatible. To use API keys, ensure your server is running version 1.14.0 or later, or use basic authentication instead.

Security Considerations

Configuration File Security

The /etc/txlog.yaml file contains sensitive information, such as the server URL and authentication credentials (API key or username/password). It is critical to protect this file from unauthorized access.

It is strongly recommended to set the file permissions to 600 to ensure that only the root user can read and write the file. You can do this with the following command:

sudo chmod 600 /etc/txlog.yaml

Usage

To compile and send all transaction info:

txlog build

To verify data integrity between local DNF history and the server:

txlog verify

The verify command checks:

• Transactions that exist locally but not on the server
• Transaction items (packages) integrity for all synced transactions

If issues are detected, run txlog build to synchronize the missing data.

MCP Server

The agent can run as an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, enabling LLMs like Claude to query your datacenter information.

[!IMPORTANT] Server Compatibility: MCP functionality requires Txlog Server version 1.19.0 or higher. The agent will automatically check the server version when starting the MCP server and fail with a clear error message if the server version is incompatible.

Starting the MCP Server

# Start in stdio mode (for Claude Desktop)
txlog mcp serve

# Start with SSE transport for web clients
txlog mcp serve --transport sse --port 3000

Available Tools

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "txlog": {
      "command": "/usr/bin/txlog",
      "args": ["mcp", "serve", "--config", "/etc/txlog.yaml"]
    }
  }
}

Gemini CLI Configuration

Add the following to your settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "txlog": {
      "command": "/usr/bin/txlog",
      "args": ["mcp", "serve", "--config", "/etc/txlog.yaml"]
    }
  }
}

Example Queries

Once configured, you can ask Claude or Gemini questions like:

• "How many servers are in my datacenter?"
• "Which servers need to be restarted?"
• "Show me the last 10 transactions on server-01"
• "Which servers have openssl installed?"
• "Generate an executive report for December 2024"
• "Create a monthly management report for November 2024"

Generating Executive Reports

The MCP server provides the generate_executive_report tool that creates monthly management reports about package updates. The tool automatically fetches data from the server and returns instructions for generating a professional report.

Required parameters:

• month: The month (1-12) for the report
• year: The year (e.g., 2024) for the report

Example usage:

Simply ask in natural language:

"Generate an executive report for December 2024."

or

"Create a monthly management report about package updates in November 2024."

The report will include:

• Most critical and high-impact updates (security/kernel packages)
• Percentage of servers impacted by major updates
• Patterns and observations for management
• CVE research with Red Hat Enterprise Linux errata references

Available Prompts

The MCP server also provides prompts for detailed report generation:

Environment Variables

NO_COLOR

All txlog commands respect the NO_COLOR environment variable as defined by no-color.org. When NO_COLOR is set to any value (even an empty string), the agent will disable colored output and emoji icons, producing plain text output suitable for logging or automated processing.

Example usage:

# Disable colors and emojis
NO_COLOR=1 txlog build
NO_COLOR=1 txlog verify
NO_COLOR=1 txlog version

This is particularly useful when:

• Running commands in CI/CD pipelines
• Logging output to files
• Using terminals that don't support colors
• Processing output with automated tools

🪴 Project Activity

Development

To make changes on this project, you need:

Golang

wget https://go.dev/dl/go1.25.5.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.25.5.linux-amd64.tar.gz
echo "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
rm go1.25.5.linux-amd64.tar.gz

nFPM and Goreleaser

echo '[goreleaser]
name=GoReleaser
baseurl=https://repo.goreleaser.com/yum/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0' | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/goreleaser.repo
sudo dnf install -y --exclude=goreleaser-pro goreleaser nfpm

Pandoc

wget https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/releases/download/3.8.2.1/pandoc-3.8.2.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar zxvf pandoc-3.8.2.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv pandoc-3.8.2.1/bin/pandoc /usr/bin/pandoc
rm -rf pandoc-3.8.2.1*

Development commands

The Makefile contains all the necessary commands for development. You can run make to view all options.

To create the binary and distribute

• make clean: remove compiled binaries and packages
• make build: build a production-ready binary on ./bin directory
• make man: compile the man txlog manpage
• make rpm: create new .rpm package

Contributing

1. Fork it (https://github.com/txlog/agent/fork)
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request