clampd 1.0.0

Runtime security SDK for AI agents — guard tool calls in 1 line

Clampd Python SDK

Runtime security for AI agents. Guard every tool call — OpenAI, Anthropic, LangChain, Google ADK — in 1 line. Prompt and response scanning enabled by default.

Installation

pip install clampd

With framework extras:

pip install clampd[langchain]    # LangChain callback handler
pip install clampd[mcp]          # MCP server support
pip install clampd[all]          # Everything

Quick Start

One connection string, no agent IDs, no secrets to manage. Set your DSN once — the SDK enrolls the agent itself on first use (generates an Ed25519 keypair, registers, and keeps the private key local):

export CLAMPD_DSN=clampd://[e-mail]

import clampd
from openai import OpenAI

clampd.init()                       # reads CLAMPD_DSN, enrolls automatically

# Wrap your OpenAI client — done
client = clampd.openai(OpenAI())

# Use it exactly like before. Clampd intercepts every tool call.
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4o",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Look up active users"}],
    tools=[...],
)
# Dangerous tool calls → blocked before execution
# Safe tool calls → proceed normally
# Prompts scanned before LLM, responses scanned after

Zero code: clampd run

Don't want to touch your code at all? Launch any program through the CLI. It auto-initializes from CLAMPD_DSN and transparently guards every OpenAI / Anthropic client your program constructs — no clampd.init(), no clampd.openai(...) wrapping:

export CLAMPD_DSN=clampd://[e-mail]
clampd run -- python app.py
clampd run -- uvicorn main:app

Prefer a one-liner in code instead of the launcher? A single import does the same thing (auto-init + auto-wrap), as long as it runs before you construct your LLM clients:

import clampd.auto      # auto-inits from CLAMPD_DSN and patches openai/anthropic

What's New (latest)

• Workload identity attestation (OIDC / k8s). In production, an agent can enroll by presenting its platform identity token (a Kubernetes ServiceAccount token or any OIDC id_token) instead of a shared token. The gateway verifies it offline against the issuer's published JWKS and derives a stable identity from the token's sub, so the same workload keeps the same agent across pod restarts and key rotation. Zero code — auto-detected from the projected token.
• Idempotent auto-recovery. A workload that lost its local key re-presents its platform identity and gets rebound to the same agent UUID automatically.
• Kill-by-attestation. Killing an agent with a workload identity revokes that identity — a re-enroll with the same sub is refused (403 enrollment_refused) until an admin re-keys. You kill the workload, not just one row.
• Re-key recovery. Lost the local key with no platform identity? Mint a one-time re-key token in the dashboard and set CLAMPD_REBIND_TOKEN — a fresh keypair is bound to the same agent UUID, history preserved.
• Tool catalog is the source of truth. Tool → scope is owned in the dashboard (declare / approve / bulk-approve), not in code. You never wire tool→scope; the gateway resolves it from the catalog, the SQL effect (deterministic), or marks the tool unclassified (still scanned, default-denied if risky). register_tool() is optional pre-declaration.

What's New in 0.23.3

When Clampd blocks a tool call, it hands the LLM a structured hint the model can pattern-match on instead of a free-text "denied" string. 0.23.3 is the cleanup: every corrective comes from a rule or policy, no code-side overrides, no synthesized fallbacks.

• Rule-only correctives. The SDK no longer ships a suggest= kwarg. Every corrective comes from a rule's [rule.corrective] block or a Cedar @corrective_* annotation, which means security policy lives in the admin surface, not in tool-author code.

• Honest fallbacks. When no source authors a corrective, denials emit kind = "no_correction" with rule attribution rather than a synthesized scope-mismatch hint that may be semantically wrong (the old "tool requires X / Permitted: X / Closest: X" bug is gone).

• request_approval variant removed from the public surface until admin approval routing is built. The proto wire shape keeps the variant for backwards compat; SDKs simply don't emit or parse it any more.

• Typed corrective actions. Denials carry one of 9 variant shapes (switch_tool, downscope_to, rename_field, redact_value, split_request, wait_and_retry, switch_endpoint, no_correction, plus downscope_auto for resolver-picked alternatives). Read error.denial.corrective for the typed shape; call error.to_tool_result() for the ready-to-send string.

• ClampdLoopError. When an LLM keeps retrying the same denied call (idempotency key seen three times in a row), this is raised instead of another ClampdBlockedError. Catch it first so loop detection isn't swallowed.

• clampd.register_tool(). Declare each tool's category at startup. Bypasses default-deny on first use and locks the descriptor hash so rug-pull detection has a baseline.

• Bard-quality messages. Every denial reads Action blocked: X. Reformulate the call under scope `Y`. The next step lives in backticks where the LLM can grab it cleanly.

• Silent on attacks. Prompt-injection, command-injection, RCE, SSRF, path-traversal and ~180 other detection rules now emit kind = "no_correction" with an empty hint, so the LLM-facing string is the bare phrase "Action blocked." — nothing for an attacker to iterate on. The dashboard chip still renders for operator visibility.

What's New in 0.5.0

• Per-agent JWT identity — each agent authenticates independently in multi-agent systems
• Streaming guard — opt-in tool call interception for streaming responses (guard_stream=True)
• Circuit breaker & retry — automatic retry with exponential backoff
• CrewAI integration — guard CrewAI agent tool calls
• 216 detection rules with Aho-Corasick prefilter (22μs at 10K rules)

Configuration

A single DSN is all the configuration there is. It carries both the gateway host and your org's publishable key:

clampd://<org_key>@<host>          # TLS (default)
clampd+http://<org_key>@<host>     # plaintext, for local dev

# From the environment (recommended) — set CLAMPD_DSN, then:
clampd.init()

# ...or pass it explicitly:
clampd.init("clampd://[e-mail]")

# Give the agent a stable logical name (otherwise the hostname / process
# name is used). The gateway assigns the UUID at enrollment.
clampd.init(name="research-agent")

There are no secrets to distribute or rotate: each agent generates its own Ed25519 keypair on first run, registers the public key with the gateway, and signs requests locally. The private key never leaves the machine.

Enrollment attestation

Self-enrollment is gated by an attestation so not anyone with the org key can register an agent. Pick one per environment — the SDK tries them in this order:

Env var (or source)	Mode	Use
CLAMPD_REBIND_TOKEN=crt_...	re-key	recover a lost-key agent → same UUID
CLAMPD_ENROLL_TOKEN=cet_...	enroll token	org-wide token for scaled fleets / CI
(projected workload token)	oidc	production k8s/OIDC identity → stable sub
(none)	open	dev only; gateway-gated by CLAMPD_ALLOW_OPEN_ENROLLMENT

Mint cet_ / crt_ tokens and register trusted OIDC issuers in the dashboard.

Workload OIDC is auto-detected — no env var needed if a projected token is present. Discovery order:

CLAMPD_WORKLOAD_TOKEN=<raw token>                          # explicit override
CLAMPD_WORKLOAD_TOKEN_FILE=/path/to/token                  # explicit file
# else: /var/run/secrets/clampd.io/token
# else: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token

Project a token with audience clampd and register the issuer once in Settings → Workload Identity; the gateway verifies it and binds the agent to <issuer>:<sub>. See services/docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the full flow.

Tool classification (no code)

You don't classify tools in code. The dashboard tool catalog owns tool → scope: admins declare or approve each tool once, and all agents inherit it. Unknown tools are still scanned and default-denied if risky, and surface in the dashboard for classification (auto-approved while Learning Mode is on). clampd.register_tool() is an optional way to pre-declare a tool's category at startup.

Anthropic / Claude

import clampd
from anthropic import Anthropic

clampd.init()
client = clampd.anthropic(Anthropic())

response = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
    max_tokens=1024,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "..."}],
    tools=[...],
)

LangChain

import clampd

clampd.init()
handler = clampd.langchain(agent_id="my-agent")

result = executor.invoke(
    {"input": "Look up active users"},
    config={"callbacks": [handler]},
)

Google ADK

import clampd
from google.adk import Agent

agent = Agent(
    tools=[...],
    before_tool_callback=clampd.adk(agent_id="my-agent"),
)

Multi-Agent (A2A Delegation)

Each agent gets its own identity by naming it — the SDK enrolls each logical name on demand (its own Ed25519 keypair, sub=research-agent), no secrets to wire. Per-agent allowed_scopes are set once in the dashboard, so a compromised writer can't touch the DB and a read-only researcher can't mutate.

clampd.agent(name) opens a delegation scope: every guarded call inside inherits the chain automatically (via contextvars), and the SDK signs the (leaf, chain) proof with the agent's Ed25519 key. In-process delegation is automatic — you do not pass any headers.

import clampd

clampd.init()

@clampd.guard("web.search", agent_id="research-agent")
def search(query: str):
    return web_search(query)

# The orchestrator delegates to research-agent. The chain
# orchestrator → research-agent is tracked + signed automatically.
with clampd.agent("orchestrator"):
    results = search("EU signups last quarter")

# Kill "research-agent" from the dashboard → only that agent is blocked.
# Contagion / cycle detection fires if an agent is pulled off its declared surface.

LangGraph (supervisor + workers)

import clampd
from typing import TypedDict
from langgraph.graph import StateGraph, START, END
from langchain_openai import ChatOpenAI
from langchain_core.messages import HumanMessage
from langchain_core.tools import tool

clampd.init()  # one CLAMPD_DSN for the whole process

@tool
def db_query(sql: str) -> str:
    """Read-only analytics query."""        # SQL effect → db:query:read
    ...

@tool
def web_search(query: str) -> str:
    """Search the web."""                    # classify once in the dashboard
    ...

def llm_for(name: str, tools=None):
    # clampd.langchain(agent_id=name) guards every tool call this LLM makes,
    # under that agent's identity + scopes.
    llm = ChatOpenAI(model="gpt-4o").bind_tools(tools or [])
    return llm, clampd.langchain(agent_id=name)

class S(TypedDict):
    task: str
    research: str
    draft: str

def supervisor(state: S) -> S:
    llm, cb = llm_for("supervisor")          # delegation-only; no tool scope
    # ... decide route ...
    return state

def researcher(state: S) -> S:
    llm, cb = llm_for("researcher", [db_query, web_search])
    with clampd.agent("supervisor"):         # chain: supervisor → researcher (auto)
        out = llm.invoke([HumanMessage(content=f"Research: {state['task']}")],
                         config={"callbacks": [cb]})
    return {"research": out.content}

def writer(state: S) -> S:
    llm, cb = llm_for("writer")              # no external tools
    with clampd.agent("supervisor"):         # chain: supervisor → writer (auto)
        out = llm.invoke([HumanMessage(content=f"Write: {state['task']}\n{state['research']}")],
                         config={"callbacks": [cb]})
    return {"draft": out.content}

g = StateGraph(S)
g.add_node("supervisor", supervisor); g.add_node("researcher", researcher); g.add_node("writer", writer)
g.add_edge(START, "supervisor"); g.add_edge("supervisor", "researcher")
g.add_edge("researcher", "writer"); g.add_edge("writer", END)
app = g.compile()

print(app.invoke({"task": "How many EU customers signed up last quarter?"})["draft"])

You wire no tool→scope and no delegation headers in code. The dashboard catalog owns tool→scope; delegation is carried by the contextvars chain.

Cross-process / microservices

When agent A's process calls agent B's separate HTTP service, the contextvars chain can't cross the boundary — attach it as headers:

import requests, clampd

with clampd.agent("orchestrator"):
    # delegation_headers() serializes the current chain for the outbound hop
    requests.post(other_service_url, headers=clampd.delegation_headers(), json=payload)

The receiving service's guarded calls then continue the same chain.

Public API

Function	Purpose
clampd.init(dsn=None, name=None)	Read CLAMPD_DSN, prepare auto-enrollment. Call once.
clampd.openai(client, agent_id=None, guard_stream=True)	Wrap an OpenAI client; guards every tool call.
clampd.anthropic(client, agent_id=None)	Wrap an Anthropic client.
clampd.langchain(*, agent_id=None, target_url="", fail_open=False, check_response=False)	LangChain callback handler that guards tool calls.
clampd.adk(*, agent_id=None)	Google ADK before_tool_callback.
clampd.crewai(*, agent_id=None, check_response=False)	CrewAI tool guard.
clampd.guard(tool_name, agent_id=None)	Decorator to guard any function as a named tool.
clampd.agent(name)	Decorator/with context that opens a delegation scope; inner guarded calls inherit + sign the chain.
clampd.delegation_headers() -> dict	Serialize the current delegation chain into HTTP headers (cross-process only).
clampd.register_tool(tool_or_name, category, subcategory, operation, description="")	Optional: pre-declare a tool's classification at startup.
clampd.require_scope(...) / verify_scope_token(...) / verify_call_binding(...)	Tool-side scope-token verification (#5 call-binding).

Errors: ClampdBlockedError, ClampdClassificationError, ClampdDescriptorMismatchError (rug-pull), ClampdLoopError, ClampdUnregisteredToolError, ScopeVerificationError.

Streaming Guard (opt-in)

# Stream tool calls are guarded only when guard_stream is enabled.
client = clampd.openai(OpenAI(),
    agent_id="my-agent",
    guard_stream=True,  # buffer + guard tool call chunks before release
)

stream = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4o",
    stream=True,
    tools=[...],
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "..."}],
)
# Tool calls in the stream are buffered, guarded, then released.
# Text chunks pass through immediately with zero added latency.

CrewAI

import clampd
from clampd.crewai_callback import ClampdCrewAIGuard

clampd.init()
guard = ClampdCrewAIGuard()

# Wrap CrewAI tools
safe_tool = guard.wrap_tool(my_tool)

Direct Guard (any function)

import clampd

clampd.init()

@clampd.guard("database.query")
def run_query(sql: str):
    return db.execute(sql)

# With response checking (opt-in)
@clampd.guard("file_read", check_response=True)
def read_file(path: str):
    return open(path).read()

run_query("SELECT * FROM users")     # allowed
run_query("DROP TABLE users")        # raises ClampdBlockedError

Tool Registration (recommended at startup)

Declare each tool's category once. Tools registered this way bypass default-deny on first use and lock their descriptor hash so rug-pull detection has a baseline to compare against.

import clampd

clampd.init()

# Declare tool classification once at startup
clampd.register_tool(
    "database.query",
    category=clampd.Category.DB,
    subcategory=clampd.Subcategory.QUERY,
    operation=clampd.Operation.READ,
    description="Read-only SQL against the analytics DB.",
)

@clampd.guard("database.query")
def database_query(sql: str): ...

You can also pass a framework tool object directly — LangChain BaseTool, OpenAI tool dict, or Anthropic tool dict — and Clampd extracts the name and schema.

How corrective hints get to the LLM

You don't have to do anything. When a tool call gets denied, Clampd returns a typed hint (switch_tool → archive_table, wait_and_retry, etc.) that the LLM can pattern-match on. The hint comes from whichever source matched first:

boundary > sdk_override > cedar > per-agent > rule template > downscope_auto

For most rules this is already wired. R001 (destructive SQL) for example ships with a switch_tool corrective pointing at archive_table. When the LLM hits that, it sees:

Action blocked: Destructive SQL (DROP/TRUNCATE/DELETE) is blocked.
Use archive_table to soft-delete (archived=true column).
Reformulate this call using the `archive_table` tool instead.

It pattern-matches on `archive_table` and pivots on the next turn.

Authoring custom correctives

The recommended path is the dashboard. Two ways:

1. Cedar policy with @corrective_* annotations. Author once, covers every agent in the org.
2. Per-agent override on the rules page. Useful when one agent needs a different remedy than the org default.

Both ship in 0.23.0+ via the Policies / Agents UI.

Valid kind values: switch_tool, downscope_to, downscope_auto, rename_field, redact_value, split_request, wait_and_retry, switch_endpoint, no_correction.

Authoring is now the only path. As of v0.23.3 Clampd no longer accepts code-side corrective overrides via the SDK. Correctives must be authored on the rule (via TOML or the dashboard) or on the Cedar policy. This puts security policy where it belongs — under admin review — and removes a class of override that bypassed the audit trail.

Scanning Options

# Defaults (v0.4.0+): scan_input=True, scan_output=True
client = clampd.openai(OpenAI(), agent_id="my-agent")

# Opt out of scanning
client = clampd.openai(OpenAI(),
    agent_id="my-agent",
    scan_input=False,   # skip prompt scanning
    scan_output=False,  # skip response scanning
)

Error Handling

As of v0.20+, blocked tool calls carry a typed StructuredDenial with a corrective action the LLM can pattern-match on. Catch ClampdLoopError before ClampdBlockedError so legitimate loop detection isn't swallowed by the more general handler.

from clampd import ClampdBlockedError, ClampdLoopError

try:
    run_query("DROP TABLE users")
except ClampdLoopError as e:
    # The LLM has retried the same denied call too many times.
    # Surface as a hard error — don't feed back to the model.
    raise
except ClampdBlockedError as e:
    # Hand the gateway-rendered string back to the LLM tool loop —
    # the model will pattern-match on the backticked tool / scope.
    tool_result_content = e.to_tool_result()
    # Or inspect the typed corrective directly:
    if e.denial and e.denial.corrective:
        c = e.denial.corrective
        match c.action:
            case clampd._corrective.SwitchTool(tool=t):
                # Auto-retry with the safer tool
                ...
            case clampd._corrective.WaitAndRetry(retry_after_seconds=n):
                # Sleep + retry
                ...

error.denial is StructuredDenial | None carrying:

• rule_id — the rule or NEVER_EXEMPTABLE predicate that fired
• violated_predicate — human-readable WHY (e.g. "Destructive SQL blocked")
• corrective — typed CorrectiveAction or None
• idempotency_key — stable hash so the SDK can detect loops
• reason_codes, boundary_violation

error.to_tool_result() returns the gateway's pre-rendered string ready to drop into tool_result.content — same text the dashboard chip shows, no client-side template logic.

API Reference

Function	Description
clampd.init(dsn=None, *, name=None)	Configure from a DSN (or CLAMPD_DSN) and auto-enroll. name sets the agent's logical name.
import clampd.auto / clampd run -- <cmd>	Zero-code: auto-init from CLAMPD_DSN + auto-wrap OpenAI/Anthropic clients.
clampd.register_tool(name, category, subcategory, operation, ...)	Declare a tool's taxonomy classification at startup. Bypasses default-deny on first use.
clampd.openai(client, **opts)	Wrap OpenAI client. guard_stream=True for streaming.
clampd.anthropic(client, **opts)	Wrap Anthropic client. guard_stream=True for streaming.
clampd.guard(tool_name, **opts)	Decorator for any function. Correctives are authored on the rule (TOML or dashboard) or Cedar policy.
clampd.langchain(...)	LangChain callback handler.
clampd.adk(...)	Google ADK before_tool_callback.
ClampdCrewAIGuard	CrewAI tool wrapping.
clampd.delegation_headers() / enter_delegation(...)	A2A delegation propagation.
clampd.verify_scope_token(...) / require_scope(...)	Tool-side scope-token verification (zero-trust).
clampd.Category / Subcategory / Operation	Taxonomy enums for register_tool.
ClampdBlockedError / ClampdLoopError / ClampdUnregisteredToolError	Typed exception hierarchy.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• A running Clampd gateway

License

BUSL-1.1