AI tools for the practitioner —1

Koppla is a Model-Context-Protocol (MCP) Server that simplifies interaction with Active Directory (AD) through natural language. You can use it to manage your Active Directory using natural language. It was created by Rudy Mens.

In this post, I’ll walk you through setting up Koppla step-by-step.

Key Components:

• Claude Desktop (Claude 3.7 Sonnet): Provides the natural language interface and powers interactions.
• Koppla Plugin: Translates natural language commands into actions.
• Claude Config (claude_desktop_config.json): Stores configuration details.
• MCP Server: Manages communication and executes LDAP commands.
• Active Directory Server: Performs directory services and manages AD resources.

Pre-Requisites

Before installing Koppla, ensure you have the following ready:

1. A Test Active Directory environment

• You can use ths Azure Quick Start template to setup a new domain on an Azure VM — https://github.com/Azure/azure-quickstart-templates/tree/master/application-workloads/active-directory/active-directory-new-domain
• You can modify this script to setup some test OUs, Users and Groups — https://github.com/davidokeyode/azure-offensive/blob/master/packtaz500testusers.ps1

2. Python 3.7 or higher and PIP

• Install and verify Python (using Chocolatey):

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

choco install python -y  

python --version 

pip --version

3. Install Claude Desktop (using Chocolatey)

choco install claude -y

Step 1 — Koppla Installation

With Python installed, run the following command to install Koppla:

pip install koppla

Step 2 — Koppla Configuration

1. Configure your Active Directory connection:
2. Use the koppla-config configurecommand to set AD details:

koppla-config configure

# Provide your AD details when prompted
ldap://xxxxxx.yyyyyyyy.zzzzz:389
DC=yyyyyyyyy,DC=zzzzz
admin_username@yyyyyyyy.zzzzz

3. Verify your configuration:

koppla-config show

4. Test the AD connection:

koppla-config test

5. Enable AD Write in Claude:

• In Claude Desktop: Navigate to File → Settings → Developer → Koppla → Edit config
• Modify the value of AD_WRITE_ENABLED to true. This setting will update your claude_desktop_config.json under the mcpServers section.

"AD_WRITE_ENABLED": "true"

Step 3 — Test and validate functionality

Try these common Active Directory tasks with Koppla:

• Which users are members of the FinanceUsers group?
• List all Domain Admins
• Find all recent changes in the AD
• Add Davy Flury to the ‘IT Users’ security group
• Add Kofi Mensah to the FinanceUsers group
• Get all empty groups
• Create a chart showing the number of computers per location

Reference

• https://lazyadmin.nl/koppla/
• https://github.com/ruudmens/Koppla
• https://pypi.org/project/koppla/