AgentBOM

What AgentBOM Is

AgentBOM is a local-first pre-commit security guard for AI-agent repositories.

AI-agent repos often mix prompts, tool permissions, MCP config, and API keys. AgentBOM gives you a local commit-time check before risky changes enter git.

• Activate once with agentbom activate.
• Commit normally.
• Block likely AI/API key leaks and risky agent capabilities.
• Run offline with deterministic checks and no scanned-code execution.

Quickstart

pip install ai-agentbom
cd my-agent-repo
agentbom activate
git commit

What It Catches

• likely AI/API key leaks, with values redacted
• risky shell or code execution capabilities
• MCP server exposure
• AI provider or model usage outside policy

Demo

Passing commit:

AgentBOM OK
No policy violations found.

Blocked commit:

AgentBOM blocked this commit

CRITICAL Possible OpenAI API key value
.env:1
Value redacted. Remove the key and rotate it.

Secret values are redacted in output.

Recommended Workflow

agentbom activate creates or reuses agentbom.toml and installs a repo-local pre-commit guard. The default mode is confirm: passing commits print AgentBOM OK, and AgentBOM asks before committing when policy violations are found. Activation only affects this local clone and does not overwrite an existing agentbom.toml unless --force is passed.

agentbom status
agentbom scan . --policy agentbom.toml --html --open

Activation presets:

• safe: default, good for normal use.
• audit: observe without blocking.
• strict: stronger policy for sensitive repos.

agentbom activate --strict remains available as an alias for agentbom activate --preset strict.

Policy Review

Policy review is advisory by default:

agentbom scan . --policy agentbom.toml --pretty

Make policy violations fail a scan only when you opt in:

agentbom scan . --policy agentbom.toml --enforce-policy

The HTML report includes a Policy Workbench for generating and refining agentbom.toml from detected providers, models, frameworks, reachable capabilities, MCP servers, secret references, and policy gaps.

See policy docs for policy format, rollout, local guard modes, and bypass behavior.

Local Guard

Install a repo-local pre-commit guard:

agentbom activate

Modes:

• advisory allows commits and warns on policy violations.
• confirm asks before committing when violations exist.
• enforce blocks commits when violations exist.

The hook is local to the current repository under .git/hooks/pre-commit. Disable it with:

agentbom deactivate

Troubleshooting prompt or PATH issues: troubleshooting.

What It Finds

Findings include source paths, confidence, reviewer-facing rationale, and mitigation signals where static evidence is available.

Reports

Generate review artifacts:

agentbom scan . --output-dir agentbom-report --html --mermaid --sarif --pretty

Diff-aware scans compare the current report with a baseline JSON report:

agentbom scan . --baseline agentbom-baseline.json --fail-on-new high --sarif --html --pretty

--fail-on-new accepts low, medium, high, or critical.

See the report guide for field definitions and reviewer workflow.

GitHub Action

Use the action in pull requests to publish reports and a workflow job summary.

name: AgentBOM

on:
  pull_request:
  push:
    branches: [main]

permissions:
  contents: read

jobs:
  scan:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Run AgentBOM
        uses: vlcak27/agentbom@v0.8.0
        with:
          path: .
          fail-on: none
          sarif-upload: false
          html: true
          output-dir: agentbom-report

      - name: Upload AgentBOM reports
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: agentbom-report
          path: agentbom-report/

Enable SARIF upload only when you want GitHub code scanning alerts:

permissions:
  contents: read
  security-events: write

More details: GitHub Action docs.

Security Model

• static analysis only
• does not execute scanned code
• does not import scanned modules
• does not execute MCP servers
• does not contact networks during scanning
• skips files larger than 1 MB
• skips binary-looking files
• does not follow symlink loops
• records secret references by name and likely credential leaks with redacted metadata only, never secret values
• works offline and emits deterministic output for the same input repository

Limitations

• Findings are review signals, not exploit verification.
• Reachability is inferred from nearby static evidence, not runtime traces.
• False positives and missed detections are possible.
• AgentBOM is AI-agent focused. Use SAST for language-specific vulnerability patterns and SBOM tools for package inventory.
• AI/API credential leak checks are focused review signals and are not a replacement for full secret scanners such as Gitleaks or TruffleHog.
• Dependency parsing is deterministic and limited, not a full lockfile solver.
• AgentBOM is not an SBOM, SPDX, or CycloneDX replacement.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
ruff check .
pytest

Or run the project check:

make check

Useful docs:

• CHANGELOG.md
• CONTRIBUTING.md
• SECURITY.md
• ARCHITECTURE.md
• Troubleshooting