CSC — Command Scope Contract

Bounded shell and CLI execution for AI agents.
Structured contracts. Policy-gated execution. Signed receipts.

CSC is a protocol for bounded shell and CLI execution by AI agents.

CSC is complementary to MCP, not a replacement for it.

It exists to remove ambient authority from agentic execution.

Instead of giving an agent raw shell access, CSC requires the agent to submit a structured command contract that declares:

• what it wants to run
• why it wants to run it
• where it wants to run it
• what it needs to read
• what it may write
• whether it needs network access
• whether it needs secrets
• what kind of effect it may cause
• how long it may run

A trusted policy layer evaluates the contract. If allowed, a constrained executor runs it and emits a verifiable, signed receipt.

Why CSC exists

Shell is useful because it is universal, composable, and token-efficient.

Shell is dangerous because it often carries too much implicit power.

CSC keeps the flexibility of shell while making scope, policy, and execution evidence explicit.

Execution model

agent -> command contract -> policy gate -> constrained executor -> execution receipt

Status

v0.5.2 — bounded production-ready

The reference runner implements the full CSC v0.1 protocol:

• Stage 1a — Protocol complete: spec frozen, conformance suite, policy schema with structured reason codes, receipt field semantics
• Stage 1b — Hardened defaults: fail-closed executor, path enforcement, resource limits, capped output capture, adversarial test suite
• Stage 2 — First hardened mode: Linux sandbox (bubblewrap + setpriv + prlimit), Ed25519 receipt signing, approval artifacts with replay prevention, end-to-end integration tests
• Stage 3 — Production candidate: release infrastructure, CI gates, security process, pilot validation, internal red-team review

Bounded production claim

CSC hardened mode is safe enough for bounded production use in Linux-based, filesystem-bounded local/CI execution workflows without network access, under the documented trust assumptions and deployment constraints.

See docs/deployment-modes.md for security claims by mode and docs/production-readiness-gate.md for the formal release gate.

Deployment modes

Local mode is for development, testing, and demos. Hardened mode is for CI/CD pipelines and production-like workflows where execution integrity matters.

See docs/deployment-modes.md for full details.

Design goals

• Keep shell composability.
• Remove raw arbitrary shell by default.
• Make intent and scope explicit before execution.
• Let trusted policy decide.
• Emit signed receipts for audit and provenance.
• Enforce boundaries with the kernel, not just Python.
• Stay small enough to implement and adopt quickly.

Non-goals

CSC does not attempt to replace:

• container isolation (CSC uses it as the enforcement layer)
• IAM
• workflow engines
• semantic validation of task correctness
• prompt injection defenses at every layer

CSC is an execution-boundary protocol. For a full statement of what CSC contributes and what it reuses, see RFC-0003.

Core objects

• CommandContract — what the agent wants to run
• PolicyDecision — whether it may run (with structured reason codes)
• ExecutionReceipt — what actually happened (signed in hardened mode)
• ApprovalArtifact — human authorization for sensitive operations

v0.1 rules

• argv arrays only
• no raw shell strings
• no bash -lc, sh -c, eval, python -c, node -e by default
• explicit read/write/network/env/secret scope
• default deny on omitted capabilities
• bounded runtime
• signed receipts in hardened mode

Quickstart

# Install from PyPI
pip install csc-runner

# Or install from source with dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Check a contract against a policy (no execution)
csc check examples/contracts/git-status.json examples/policies/dev-readonly.yaml

# Run a contract (local mode)
csc run examples/contracts/git-status.json examples/policies/dev-readonly.yaml

# Run in hardened mode (Linux, requires bwrap/setpriv/prlimit)
csc run contract.json policy.yaml \
  --mode hardened \
  --sign --signing-key key.pem --key-id prod-01

# Verify a signed receipt
csc verify-receipt receipt.json --public-key pub.pem --key-id prod-01

Documentation

• Spec v0.1 — protocol specification
• Deployment Modes — local vs hardened, security claims
• Key Management — signing key lifecycle
• Threat Model — threat classes and mitigations
• Security Targets — claims matrix by mode
• Production Readiness Gate — formal release checklist
• Policy Packs — organizational policy conventions
• Reason Codes — structured decision reason registry
• Security Policy — vulnerability reporting
• Internal Red-Team Review — adversarial review findings
• Pilot Retrospective — pilot execution and lessons learned

RFCs

• RFC-0001 — CSC core protocol
• RFC-0002 — PIC alignment and mapping
• RFC-0003 — CSC positioning, contribution, and boundaries

Contributing

Contributions welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md and start with docs/spec-v0.1.md and schemas/.

License

Apache-2.0