borderlint 0.8.0

Map and govern where your AI data and traffic flow — east-west / APAC lens.

borderlint

Map and govern where your AI data and traffic flow — east-west / APAC lens.

A static, in-CI check for HK / GBA entities: does your AI data stay within the jurisdictions your PDPO / PIPL policy allows? borderlint statically scans your repo (Python and TypeScript/JavaScript) for AI provider usage, resolves each flow to a jurisdiction (ccTLD codes plus the CN-GBA / GBA tokens), and fails the build on any flow outside the allow-list for the data class you declare. Western and Chinese providers are treated evenly. Zero runtime dependencies.

Use

python -m borderlint scan ./service --policy residency.json --classification customer-pii

• No --policy → inventory mode (lists flows + jurisdictions, exits 0).
• --format json|mermaid|sarif|sbom — machine output, a flow map, SARIF for GitHub code-scanning, or a deterministic AI data-flow SBOM (policy-independent inventory of every flow; an artifact, exits 0).
• diff <baseline.sbom> <current.sbom> — compare two SBOMs; exits 1 when the PR adds a new non-local flow (new egress), else 0. Diff the base-branch SBOM against the PR's to gate new AI egress.
• Accept a reviewed flow with an inline # borderlint: allow <reason> waiver (justification required; it's reported as waived, not hidden, and can't override an explicit provider deny).
• Exit code is non-zero on a violation, so it gates CI.

Policy (the eval-set)

residency.json maps each data class to the jurisdictions you accept:

{
  "home_regime": "pdpo",
  "classifications": {
    "customer-pii": ["hk", "CN-GBA", "sg"],
    "employee-pii": ["hk", "CN-GBA"],
    "non-pii":      ["hk", "CN-GBA", "cn", "mo", "sg", "us", "gb"]
  }
}

Deny-by-default: a flow to any code not on the list for the declared class fails — so sg is allowed but my is not, matching a PDPO agreed-locations EULA. GBA is shorthand for hk + CN-GBA. A flagged flow is tagged with the data-protection regimes in play (PDPO / PIPL) and the relevant cross-border arrangement — GBA Standard Contract, PIPL cross-border, or GDPR SCCs — surfaced as reference links, never adjudicated.

Capabilities

• Languages: Python (AST) and TypeScript/JavaScript (import / require / dynamic import()), plus endpoint references in config/text files.
• Providers: 13+ across the east-west boundary (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Azure, Bedrock, Mistral, Cohere + Tencent, Alibaba, DeepSeek, Moonshot, Zhipu, Baidu), with Python and JS/TS package names and the Vercel AI SDK (@ai-sdk/*).
• Aggregators: litellm, langchain, LlamaIndex, aisuite, Vercel AI core (ai) → unknown (runtime-routed), so on_unknown: fail blocks them for sensitive classes.
• Jurisdictions: ccTLD/ISO codes + CN-GBA / GBA; AWS/Azure region resolved from the endpoint host where present (e.g. bedrock-runtime.ap-east-1… → hk).
• Policy: classification-keyed JSON eval-set, deny-by-default, provider allow/deny, configurable failure set, declared home regime.
• Regimes & arrangements: flagged flows tagged with PDPO / PIPL and linked to the GBA Standard Contract, PIPL cross-border, or GDPR SCCs — reference only, never adjudicated.
• Output & CI: text / JSON / Mermaid / SARIF / SBOM, an SBOM diff gate for new egress, inline waivers, exit codes, GitHub Action + Jenkins.

Scope

For HK / GBA home bases under PDPO / PIPL / GBA. Not yet: vector-DB / storage residency, a pre-commit hook, CycloneDX / SPDX SBOM export, and optional LLM enrichment. Full roadmap in CAPABILITIES.md.

Internal endpoints

Map your own regional endpoints to jurisdictions; they merge with the bundled provider KB (your entries win on conflict):

{ "endpoints": { "llm-cn.acme.internal": "cn", "llm-hk.acme.internal": "hk", "llm-sg.acme.internal": "sg" } }

borderlint scan . --providers internal-endpoints.json --policy residency.json --classification customer-pii

A configuration wired to the wrong regional endpoint — e.g. the CN endpoint for HK/SG-only customer PII — then fails the build, so you can't ship a service pointed at the wrong region.

CI

Same command in any pipeline. GitHub Actions (composite action):

- uses: iolairus/borderlint@v0.8.0
  with: { path: ., policy: residency.json, classification: customer-pii }

Jenkins / anything else: pip install borderlint && borderlint scan . --policy residency.json --classification customer-pii — a non-zero exit fails the stage. Full examples in examples/ci/.

Keeping the KB fresh

A weekly GitHub Action (.github/workflows/kb-refresh.yml) diffs the bundled provider KB against litellm's registry and opens an issue listing providers we don't yet cover — jurisdictions are assigned by hand, never auto-merged. borderlint --version shows the KB's last-reviewed date.

License

MIT © 2026 Iolaire McKinnon. Vendor-neutral by design.