Getting Started
What is F5 Distributed Cloud?
Section titled “What is F5 Distributed Cloud?”F5 Distributed Cloud (F5 XC) is a SaaS-based platform for deploying, securing, and operating applications across multi-cloud and edge environments. This documentation hub aggregates all the tools, libraries, and guides built around the F5 XC platform.
Choosing the Right Tool
Section titled “Choosing the Right Tool”Command-Line Users
Section titled “Command-Line Users”If you work in the terminal, start with the xcsh CLI. It provides full command-line access to F5 Distributed Cloud management operations.
VS Code Users
Section titled “VS Code Users”The VS Code Extension lets you manage 236+ F5 XC resource types directly from your editor with tree views, inline editing, and resource creation.
AI-Assisted Workflows
Section titled “AI-Assisted Workflows”Two MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers integrate F5 XC with AI coding assistants:
- API MCP Server — exposes 1,500+ API tools for Claude, Copilot, and other AI assistants
- Cloud Status MCP — provides real-time F5 Cloud operational status monitoring
The Plugin Marketplace offers additional automation plugins for Claude Code.
Developers
Section titled “Developers”- Auth Library — TypeScript/Node.js library for XDG-compliant credential management
- API Fixed Specs — validated OpenAPI specifications for all F5 XC APIs
Network Engineers
Section titled “Network Engineers”The DDoS Administration Guide walks through configuring and managing DDoS protection on F5 Distributed Cloud.
Documentation Infrastructure
Section titled “Documentation Infrastructure”All documentation sites in the F5 XC ecosystem are built with Astro Starlight using a shared build system:
- Docs Builder — the containerized build system that turns content repos into documentation sites
- Docs Theme — shared branding, fonts, and styling consumed by all sites at build time