Cove Data Protection + AI in 60 seconds
Unofficial. Community-built Claude Code Skill and MCP server for the Cove Data Protection API. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by N-able.
Awaiting live verification - passes every mechanical gate (build, command-surface, claims, install). Be the first to confirm it against your tenant: report it works.
Ask which Cove backups failed last night and get every failed, aborted, or never-started device across all your customers in one sweep, the status codes decoded to plain names. Cove’s console scopes to one partner at a time and forgets yesterday; this skill speaks the whole JSON-RPC API and keeps a local snapshot history, so storage-growth and what-changed-since-Friday trends exist at all.
New to the term? An MCP server is the same thing ChatGPT calls an app or connector, Claude on the web calls a connector, and Claude Code calls a Skill. One thing, many names →
Install in 60s → View on GitHub →
Instead of clicking through Cove Data Protection, just ask
Instead of Log into backup.management, switch into each customer one at a time, and eyeball the dashboard for red devices every single morning.
just ask: “Which devices failed their last backup across all my customers since yesterday?”
Your agent runs: cove-cli devices failures --since 24h --agent
Instead of Export the monthly usage report, then decode SKU and M365 seat counts by hand with the column-code legend open in another tab.
just ask: “Give me the month-end billing usage for every device as a CSV.”
Your agent runs: cove-cli billing usage --csv
Instead of Wonder whether a customer’s backup storage is creeping up, with no way to tell because the console only ever shows today’s number.
just ask: “Which devices and customers grew their backup storage the most this week?”
Your agent runs: cove-cli storage growth --since 7d --agent
See it in 30 seconds
Demo data is simulated. Every command shown exists in the real CLI.
What it does
| Question your MSP keeps asking | Command your agent runs |
|---|---|
| Which devices failed their last backup since yesterday? | cove-cli devices failures --since 24h --json |
| Which devices have had no successful backup in 3 days? | cove-cli devices stale --days 3 --json |
| What is the fleet-wide health rollup, broken down per customer? | cove-cli fleet health --by partner --json |
| Which devices and customers grew their storage fastest this week? | cove-cli storage growth --since 7d --json |
| What is the month-end billing usage per device, with codes decoded? | cove-cli billing usage --csv |
| Which device SKUs or seat counts changed since last month? | cove-cli billing changes --json |
| Which backup statuses flipped since my last snapshot? | cove-cli devices changes --since 7d --json |
Full command reference at github.com/servosity/msp-skills/blob/main/skills/cove/guide.md.
What makes this one different
Most Cove integrations proxy each question into a single live JSON-RPC call: fine for one device, useless for “show me every failure across 40 customers” or any trend. This skill sweeps the whole partner tree in one command, decodes the status and SKU column codes to plain names, and keeps a timestamped local snapshot history in SQLite. So cross-customer rollups and storage-growth trends are answerable at all, not just today’s single number.
Cove’s backup.management console has no AI and answers one customer at a time with no history. This skill adds the cross-tenant sweep and the local trend layer the console structurally withholds; it complements the console for restores and per-session detail, which still live in the Backup Manager client and the storage-node Reporting Service.
Also from Servosity. Backup & DR is Servosity’s own field - the first-party Servosity connector brings this same fleet-wide, local-mirror approach (fleet attention, stale backups, restores, QBR reporting) to Servosity Backup and DR.
The pain this closes
- Cove’s dashboard scopes to one customer at a time. To answer “what failed last night across all 40 clients” you open each customer separately, every morning. The N-able/Cove community on r/msp and MSPGeek repeatedly asks for a single cross-tenant failure list the console does not provide.
- The console shows today’s status and storage but keeps no history, so “is this customer’s backup growing?” and “did Friday’s failures clear?” have no data behind them.
- Month-end billing means exporting usage and decoding cryptic column codes (SKU, used storage, seat counts) by hand against a legend in another tab.
Install
Works in any of these agents - pick yours:
| Agent | Quick install |
|---|---|
| Claude Desktop | Step-by-step → |
| ChatGPT (Plus/Pro+) | Step-by-step → |
| Claude Code | Step-by-step → |
| Codex CLI | Step-by-step → |
| Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Continue, Zed, Copilot, Gemini, Hermes, OpenClaw | Which agent? → |
Quickest path for everyone else (terminal):
macOS / Linux:
bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/cove/install.sh)
Windows (PowerShell):
iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/servosity/msp-skills/main/skills/cove/install.ps1 | iex
After install, authenticate once with your Cove Data Protection credentials, then verify with cove-cli --version.
Safety model
| Tier | Examples | Recommended agent policy |
|---|---|---|
| Read (tenant) | devices failures, devices stale, fleet health, billing usage, storage growth, and every enumerate command | Allow |
| Local-only writes | sync, snapshot, auth login/logout - write to your machine’s SQLite mirror and visa cache, never the tenant | Allow (no tenant change) |
| Generic API call | call |
Human-in-the-loop; preview with –dry-run first |
The skill is read-first: every command that touches Cove reads (failure sweeps, health rollups, billing, storage, enumeration) and changes nothing in your tenant. The local commands (sync, snapshot, auth) write only to your machine’s SQLite mirror and session cache. The one escape hatch, call, can invoke any JSON-RPC method including the few that mutate, so keep it human-reviewed. Recommended policy: allow reads freely; gate call and anything that writes behind a human. Full details in governance.md.
Frequently asked questions
Does this work with ChatGPT?
Yes, on paid ChatGPT plans. ChatGPT connects to remote MCP servers over HTTPS, so you expose the local Cove Data Protection MCP server via a secure bridge. Step-by-step in the install guide.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. Paste one sentence into Claude Code or Codex and your agent does the install, or run a one-line installer. You enter your credentials once.
Is my Cove Data Protection data safe?
Your data stays on your machine. The CLI, MCP server, and the local mirror are all local. The AI sees query results, not raw bulk data, and credentials are never bundled or transmitted by MSP Skills.
What does it cost?
Free. Apache-2.0 licensed. You pay only for whichever AI agent you already use.
What kind of Cove account does it need?
An API-enabled backup.management user: a Security Officer service account with the API flag set. Interactive two-factor logins cannot use the JSON-RPC API. You set COVE_USERNAME and COVE_PASSWORD once; the skill exchanges them for a cached session visa and refreshes it automatically.
Can it restore files or browse backed-up data?
No. This skill speaks the Cove management API: fleet health, billing, storage trends, and enumeration. Restores and per-session file browsing run through the Backup Manager client and the storage-node Reporting Service, which this CLI does not cover.
Status
Beta. Validated against the Cove Data Protection API surface and being validated with MSPs running it live against their own production tenants in our weekly Build Sessions.
Standards. Conforms to the open Agent Skills spec (Anthropic, Dec 2025; 40+ agents). MCP-compatible - works with any MCP-capable agent including Hermes. OpenClaw-ready (frontmatter pre-wired, awaiting OpenClaw launch).
Maintained by Servosity for the MSP community. Apache-2.0 licensed. Built with CLI Printing Press.