# Pica8

> Pica8 is an open-networking software company in Palo Alto, California, first to market with a commercial
> SDN network operating system in 2012. It publishes PICOS, a Debian-Linux-based network operating system that
> runs on third-party white-box switches, and AmpCon, a controller that automates zero-touch provisioning,
> configuration templating, image upgrade, licensing and Ansible playbook execution across a PICOS fleet.
> Both products are deployed on customer infrastructure. There is no Pica8-hosted API endpoint: every base URL
> is the operator's own controller or switch address.

Generated by API Evangelist on 2026-08-26. Pica8 does not publish an llms.txt of its own
(https://www.pica8.com/llms.txt returns 404, probed 2026-08-26).

## What is programmable

- AmpCon Network Controller REST API — JWT bearer auth, ~50 documented operations across templates, global and
  per-switch configuration, backup/rollback/diff, switch lifecycle (stage, import, DECOM, RMA), switch groups,
  licensing, controller settings and Ansible playbooks and jobs. Documented contract version 1.12.1 (2023-06-25).
- PICOS RESTCONF — RFC 8040 on the switch at https://<device-ip>:<port>/restconf/data, HTTP Basic auth,
  application/yang-data+json and +xml, full OPTIONS/HEAD/GET/POST/PATCH/PUT/DELETE method set.
- PICOS NETCONF — RFC 6241 over SSH with RADIUS/TACACS+ authorization; get, get-config, get-schema (RFC 6022)
  and edit-config.
- PICOS gNMI telemetry — Get and Subscribe over gRPC, dial-in mode only, switch acts as gRPC server.
- PICOS ZTP API — a named shell function library at /usr/bin/ztp-functions.sh used by the provisioning script.
- OpenFlow 1.3/1.4, sFlow v5, Open vSwitch/OVSDB, ONIE.

## How Pica8 publishes its contract

Pica8 does NOT publish an OpenAPI description. The AmpCon REST contract is published as dated Microsoft Word
attachments on one Confluence page, and the PICOS device interfaces are documented as configuration-guide prose.
There is no interactive API console, no Postman collection, no SDK in any package registry and no MCP server.

## Documentation

- Pica8 documentation wiki (Confluence): https://pica8-fs.atlassian.net/wiki
- AmpCon API document (the REST contract, as .docx attachments): https://pica8-fs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ampcon/pages/753668/AmpCon+API+document
- AmpCon Network Controller 1.14 Deployment and User Guide: https://pica8-fs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ampcon/overview
- AmpCon Release Notes: https://pica8-fs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ampcon/pages/753831/AmpCon+Release+Notes
- Introduction of RESTCONF: https://pica8-fs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Picos48white/pages/1157576061/Introduction+of+RESTCONF
- RESTCONF Operation Methods: https://pica8-fs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Picos48white/pages/1157576105/RESTCONF+Operation+Methods
- Configuring NETCONF: https://pica8-fs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Picos48white/pages/1157576481/Configuring+NETCONF
- Configuring gNMI-gRPC Based Telemetry: https://pica8-fs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Picos48white/pages/1157576500/Configuring+gNMI-gRPC+Based+Telemetry+Technology
- Appendix: ZTP API: https://pica8-fs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Picos48white/pages/1157563048/Appendix+ZTP+API
- PICOS releases: https://www.pica8.com/picos-releases/
- Resources and documentation index: https://www.pica8.com/resources/
- Support: https://www.pica8.com/support/

## API Evangelist artifacts in this repo

- OpenAPI (TRANSCRIBED BY API EVANGELIST, not published by Pica8): openapi/pica8-ampcon-openapi.yml
- OpenAPI Overlay of our enhancements: overlays/pica8-ampcon-overlay.yaml
- Authentication profile: authentication/pica8-authentication.yml
- API conventions, dry-run and reversibility: conventions/pica8-conventions.yml
- Error catalogue: errors/pica8-problem-types.yml
- Data model: data-model/pica8-data-model.yml
- Lifecycle, versioning and deprecation posture: lifecycle/pica8-lifecycle.yml
- Changelog: changelog/pica8-changelog.yml
- Standards conformance (RESTCONF, NETCONF, YANG, gNMI, OpenFlow, sFlow, ONIE): conformance/pica8-conformance.yml
- Packages and repositories: packages/pica8-packages.yml
- CLI and ZTP function surface: cli/pica8-cli.yml
- Plans and pricing: plans/pica8-plans-pricing.yml
- Rate limits: rate-limits/pica8-rate-limits.yml
- Well-known probe results: well-known/pica8-well-known.yml
- MCP candidate surface: mcp/pica8-mcp.yml
- Agent skills: skills/_index.yml

## Source repositories

- https://github.com/pica8/Ansible — Ansible content for PICOS configuration management
- https://github.com/pica8/Jinja_Templates — Jinja2 configuration templates
- https://github.com/pica8/AmpCon-Automations — AmpCon automation tooling
- https://github.com/pica8/network_as_code — deploy PICOS and PICOS-V with EVPN (MIT)
- https://github.com/pica8/snmp_oid_adapter — SNMP OID adapter
- https://github.com/pica8/GNS3_Examples — GNS3 topology examples

## What Pica8 does not publish

- No OpenAPI, AsyncAPI or GraphQL description.
- No client SDK in npm, PyPI, Ansible Galaxy, RubyGems or crates.io.
- No MCP server and no A2A agent card.
- No /.well-known/ document of any kind on www.pica8.com (all five canonical paths return 404).
- No status page (status.pica8.com does not resolve), no SLA, no deprecation policy.
- No public pricing; commercial terms are sold through partners and the licensing page requires a partner login.
- No rate limits — the APIs run on hardware the customer owns.

## Company

- Website: https://www.pica8.com/
- About: https://www.pica8.com/company/about-us/
- Blog: https://www.pica8.com/blog/ (RSS: https://www.pica8.com/feed/)
- News: https://www.pica8.com/news/
- Contact: https://www.pica8.com/contact/
- Privacy policy: https://www.pica8.com/privacy-policy/
- Warranty and agreements: https://www.pica8.com/support/warranty-and-agreements/