Subnetter - IPv4 CIDR Allocation Tool

A command-line tool and library for hierarchical IPv4 CIDR allocation across multi-cloud infrastructure with NetBox IPAM integration.

Project Status

Subnetter is production-ready for IPv4 CIDR allocation. The project includes:

• Core allocation engine with deterministic, hierarchical allocation
• CLI with commands for generation, validation, analysis, and NetBox export
• NetBox IPAM integration for syncing allocations
• Comprehensive test coverage and documentation

Packages

Subnetter is organized as a monorepo with the following packages:

Package	Description	npm
@subnetter/core	Core CIDR allocation engine, configuration, and utilities
@subnetter/cli	Command-line interface
@subnetter/netbox	NetBox IPAM integration
@subnetter/cidr-utils	Low-level CIDR utilities
@subnetter/docs	Documentation site (Astro/Starlight)	-

The Problem

Managing IP address space in modern cloud environments presents several challenges:

IP Address Management Complexity

• Manual allocation is error-prone: Hand-crafting CIDR blocks for hundreds of subnets across multiple regions leads to mistakes
• Overlapping CIDRs cause connectivity issues: Without a systematic approach, IP conflicts can cause outages and security vulnerabilities
• Multi-cloud environments multiply complexity: Each cloud provider requires its own network architecture, but needs to integrate with others

Scaling Challenges

• Growing organizations quickly exhaust IP space: Without proper planning, organizations need painful re-IP projects as they grow
• Future-proofing is difficult: Planning for expansion across regions, accounts, and cloud providers requires complex calculations
• Consistent documentation is hard to maintain: Network diagrams and spreadsheets become outdated as infrastructure evolves

Operational Overhead

• Tracking allocated CIDRs across teams: Different teams deploy resources in different regions with no central coordination
• Limited visibility across environments: Network admins struggle to understand the global IP addressing picture
• Automation integration requires structured data: Infrastructure-as-code tools need consistent, predictable IP allocation

Subnetter solves these problems through automated, hierarchical CIDR allocation that ensures consistency, prevents overlaps, documents all allocations, and scales with your organization.

Features

Core Allocation

• Hierarchical IPv4 CIDR Allocation: Account → Region → Availability Zone → Subnet
• Multi-Cloud Support: AWS, Azure, and GCP with provider-specific AZ naming
• Deterministic Output: Same configuration always produces identical allocations
• CIDR Overlap Detection: Validates and prevents overlapping allocations
• Variable Subnet Sizing: Configure prefix lengths per subnet type
• Account-Level Overrides: Different base CIDRs for specific accounts/clouds

Configuration & Output

• Flexible Configuration: JSON or YAML with Zod schema validation
• CSV Output: Structured output for integration with other tools
• Provider Filtering: Generate allocations for specific cloud providers

NetBox Integration

• Export to NetBox IPAM: Sync allocations to NetBox prefixes
• Automatic Object Creation: Creates tenants, sites, locations, roles
• Dry-Run Mode: Preview changes before applying
• Idempotent Operations: Safe to run repeatedly

Developer Experience

• Comprehensive Error Handling: SubnetterError hierarchy with codes and help text
• Configurable Logging: Multiple log levels with color and timestamp options
• Full TypeScript Support: Complete type definitions
• Programmatic API: Use as a library in your applications

Documentation

📚 Subnetter Documentation

• Getting Started - Quick start guide
• Configuration - Configuration reference
• CLI Reference - All CLI commands
• API Overview - Programmatic usage
• TypeDoc API - Auto-generated API reference
• NetBox Integration - IPAM integration guide
• CIDR Primer - IP addressing basics

Installation

# Install CLI globally
npm install -g @subnetter/cli

# Or use with npx
npx @subnetter/cli generate -c config.json

# Install for programmatic use
npm install @subnetter/core

# Install NetBox integration
npm install @subnetter/netbox

Prerequisites

• Node.js: ^18.18.0 || ^20.9.0 || >=21.1.0

CLI Usage

Generate Allocations

subnetter generate -c config.json -o allocations.csv

Options:

• -c, --config <path>: Configuration file (JSON/YAML) required
• -o, --output <path>: Output CSV file (default: allocations.csv)
• -p, --provider <name>: Filter by cloud provider
• -b, --base-cidr <cidr>: Override base CIDR
• -v, --verbose: Enable debug logging
• -l, --log-level <level>: Log level (silent, error, warn, info, debug, trace)

Validate Configuration

subnetter validate -c config.json

Analyze Configuration

subnetter analyze -c config.json

Shows configuration statistics including account count, region count, and estimated subnet count.

Validate Existing Allocations

subnetter validate-allocations -f allocations.csv

Checks an existing CSV file for CIDR overlaps.

Export to NetBox

subnetter netbox-export -c config.json --netbox-url https://netbox.example.com --dry-run

Options:

• --netbox-url <url>: NetBox API URL required
• --netbox-token <token>: API token (or use NETBOX_TOKEN env var)
• --dry-run: Preview changes without applying
• --prune: Delete orphaned prefixes
• --status <status>: Prefix status (container, active, reserved, deprecated)

Configuration

{
  "baseCidr": "10.0.0.0/8",
  "prefixLengths": {
    "account": 16,
    "region": 20,
    "az": 22
  },
  "accounts": [
    {
      "name": "production",
      "clouds": {
        "aws": {
          "regions": ["us-east-1", "us-west-2"]
        },
        "azure": {
          "regions": ["eastus", "westus"]
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "subnetTypes": {
    "public": 26,
    "private": 24,
    "database": 27
  }
}

Required Fields

• baseCidr: Base CIDR block for allocation
• accounts: Array of account configurations with cloud/region mappings
• subnetTypes: Subnet types with their prefix lengths

Optional Fields

• prefixLengths: Override default prefix lengths for account/region/az levels
• cloudProviders: Explicit list (usually inferred from accounts)

Programmatic Usage

import {
  loadConfig,
  CidrAllocator,
  writeAllocationsToCsv,
  validateNoOverlappingCidrs
} from '@subnetter/core';

async function main() {
  // Load and validate configuration
  const config = await loadConfig('./config.json');

  // Generate allocations
  const allocator = new CidrAllocator(config);
  const allocations = allocator.generateAllocations();

  // Validate no overlaps
  const validation = validateNoOverlappingCidrs(allocations);
  if (!validation.valid) {
    console.error(`Found ${validation.overlaps.length} overlaps`);
    process.exit(1);
  }

  // Write to CSV
  await writeAllocationsToCsv(allocations, './allocations.csv');
  console.log(`Generated ${allocations.length} allocations`);
}

main();

NetBox Export

import { CidrAllocator, loadConfig } from '@subnetter/core';
import { NetBoxClient, NetBoxExporter } from '@subnetter/netbox';

const config = await loadConfig('./config.json');
const allocator = new CidrAllocator(config);
const allocations = allocator.generateAllocations();

const client = new NetBoxClient({
  url: 'https://netbox.example.com',
  token: process.env.NETBOX_TOKEN!,
});

const exporter = new NetBoxExporter(client);
const result = await exporter.export(allocations, {
  dryRun: false,
  baseCidr: config.baseCidr,
});

console.log(`Created: ${result.summary.created}`);
console.log(`Updated: ${result.summary.updated}`);

Error Handling

import {
  loadConfig,
  SubnetterError,
  ConfigurationError,
  AllocationError,
  ErrorCode
} from '@subnetter/core';

try {
  const config = await loadConfig('./config.json');
} catch (error) {
  if (error instanceof ConfigurationError) {
    console.error(`Config error [${error.code}]: ${error.message}`);
    console.log('Help:', error.getHelpText());
  } else if (error instanceof AllocationError) {
    if (error.code === ErrorCode.INSUFFICIENT_SPACE) {
      console.error('Not enough IP space. Try a larger base CIDR.');
    }
  }
}

Output Format

Column	Description
Account Name	Account identifier
VPC Name	VPC name (account-region)
Cloud Provider	aws, azure, or gcp
Region Name	Cloud region
Availability Zone	AZ within region
Region CIDR	CIDR for the region
VPC CIDR	CIDR for the VPC
AZ CIDR	CIDR for the AZ
Subnet CIDR	CIDR for the subnet
Subnet Role	Subnet type/role
Usable IPs	Available IP addresses

Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/gangster/subnetter.git
cd subnetter
yarn install

# Build all packages
yarn build

# Run tests
yarn test
yarn test:e2e

# Lint
yarn lint

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See the Developer Guide for setup instructions and coding standards.

License

MIT