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Clixon: Open Source Network Automation Built on Standards

Clixon: Open Source Network Automation Built on Standards

As networks grow in scale and complexity, operators face increasing challenges. Manual configuration leads to errors. Toolchains become fragmented. Service deployment slows down. Ensuring consistency across multi-vendor environments becomes harder every year.

Clixon offers a different approach.

Clixon is an open source, YANG-based configuration and automation framework designed to provide a coherent, standards-driven way to manage devices and services. Developed as a community-driven project, Clixon combines model-based configuration, transactional safety, and multiple management interfaces into one unified system.

What Is Clixon?

At its core, Clixon is a configuration management framework built around YANG, the industry standard for modelling network data.

From those YANG models, Clixon can generate and support:

  • An interactive CLI

  • NETCONF

  • RESTCONF

  • A transactional configuration datastore

Because everything is model-driven, configuration is validated before it is committed. Changes are applied atomically, reducing the risk of partial updates or inconsistent device states. This makes network changes safer, more predictable, and easier to automate.

Clixon is open source and dual licensed under Apache 2.0 and GPLv3, allowing both community contributions and commercial adoption.

Beyond a Single Device: The Clixon Controller

Building on the core framework, the Clixon Controller extends the approach to multi-device environments.

The Controller connects to devices using standard NETCONF over SSH and enables coordinated configuration across an entire network. It exposes automation logic through a Python engine, allowing operators to define workflows such as BGP provisioning, service deployment, or user management in a structured and repeatable way.

This moves Clixon from being a powerful configuration tool to becoming a platform for network orchestration.

A Growing Ecosystem

Clixon is not a theoretical project. It is actively used in both commercial and research environments.

The ecosystem includes:

  • Clixon, the core configuration manager

  • Clixon Controller, for multi-device automation

  • CLIgen, a CLI generation framework used to create consistent interactive interfaces

The project has industry adoption. Netgate uses Clixon in its TNSR product and sponsors development. Akamai, RtBrick, and Ceragon use Clixon in their products. Within the research and education networking community, SUNET’s SNC project has deployed the Clixon Controller in production for its 400 Gbps network.

NORDUnet is planning deployment of the Clixon Controller in 2025.

This combination of open governance, real-world deployments, and cross-sector adoption makes Clixon a mature and credible automation platform.

Why Community Matters

Clixon is developed openly. Anyone can contribute YANG models, service modules, plugins, documentation, or improvements. The project is maintained through public repositories and open collaboration channels.

For operators, this means:

  • No vendor lock-in

  • Full transparency

  • The ability to extend and adapt the system

  • Shared knowledge across a growing community

Get Involved

Whether you are a network engineer looking to reduce manual work, a developer building automation solutions, or part of the NREN community exploring open control planes, Clixon offers a standards-based and community-driven path forward.

You can learn more and get involved here: