In general, techniques are described for defining and executing device-independent commands on a network having a plurality of network devices. In some examples, a controller includes a graphical user interface. The controller displays, via the graphical user interface, network devices that support a device-independent command selected from one or more device-independent commands, wherein each device-independent command performs one or more operations on supported network devices. The controller receives, via the graphical user interface, user input selecting two or more of the displayed network devices and performs the one or more operations of the selected device-independent command on the selected network devices. In some examples, performing includes executing tasks associated with each network device, wherein the tasks, when executed, perform the one or more operations on each respective network device.