DARM Guard

See what your agent is doing. Then govern it.

An agent tool-authorization guard, grounded in a machine-checked Lean 4 theory of assurance transfer.

PerceptraAI Lab

Install

pip install darm-guard

Quick Start

from darm_guard import DARMGuard, Policy, Credential

guard = DARMGuard(
    policy=Policy(authorized_tools=frozenset(["file_read", "web_search"])),
    credential=Credential(tools=frozenset(["file_read"])),
)

guard.check({"file_read"})   # admitted, within credential
guard.check({"code_exec"})   # admitted in OBSERVE mode, but reported

Kernel-backed guard (v0.3, recommended)

KernelGuard checks the tool, its arguments, and where each argument came from. Every allow/deny decision is computed by the DARM decision kernel: a Lean 4 function with machine-checked properties (darm-monitor K4RoleKernel, which decides exactly as K1DecisionKernel on policies without payload rules), compiled to a native binary (K4DecisionServer). The Python side only formats requests.

from darm_guard import KernelGuard, KernelPolicy, ToolRule, ArgRule

policy = KernelPolicy(tools=(
    ToolRule("file_read", (ArgRule("path", allowed_prefixes=("/workspace/",)),)),
))
guard = KernelGuard(policy, tools={"file_read"},
                    default_provenance="untrusted",
                    kernel_path="/path/to/darmkernel")

guard.check("file_read", {"path": "/workspace/notes.txt"},
            provenance={"path": "authoritative"})         # admitted
guard.check("file_read", {"path": "/etc/passwd"},
            provenance={"path": "authoritative"})         # rejected: semantic
guard.check("file_read", {"path": "/workspace/notes.txt"})  # rejected: provenance

Proved about the kernel's decision function: an admitted invocation passed all five checks, and an expired credential, a tool outside the credential, or any untrusted argument value can never be admitted.

Install the kernel. After pip install darm-guard, run darm-guard-install-kernel. It downloads the kernel binary that darm-monitor's CI built from tag kernel-v0.2.0 and installs it only if its SHA-256 matches the value pinned in this package. Linux x86_64 only; elsewhere, build it with lake build darmkernel and set DARM_KERNEL_PATH. Kernels are never downloaded during an authorization check.

Limits. Not proved: this Python module, JSON encoding, argument-to-string conversion, expiry computation, the kernel's JSON parser and I/O loop, and the Lean compiler. The guard fails closed if the kernel is missing, crashes, or times out. Provenance labels come from the caller; the guard does not infer lineage.

DARM Broker: the enforcement point

KernelGuard answers "is this authorized?" The broker makes the answer binding. It is a separate process that holds the tools and their credentials; the agent holds only a socket and can only propose. The broker builds one canonical invocation, asks the kernel, and executes that same invocation only if admitted.

darm-broker --config broker.json --registry registry.txt --socket /tmp/darm-broker.sock

from darm_guard.broker import BrokerClient
agent = BrokerClient("/tmp/darm-broker.sock")
agent.propose("read_file", {"path": "/workspace/notes.txt"})

The config holds the policy, the credential's tools, the workspace directory, and optionally a credential lifetime (issued_at, ttl_seconds). The registry lists the values the principal vouches for, one per line, in a file the agent cannot write. A line ending in * is a pattern: /workspace/reports/* vouches for every value under that prefix, which gets provenance derived. A policy rule marked "payload": true (a file's content, say) must satisfy its rule but is not provenance-gated: the kernel proves payload cannot buy authority.

Intents (E24). Started with --intents, the broker also requires a principal-held, single-use authorization for each kind of action: a file listing tool names, one per line, in a place the agent cannot write. Each admitted action consumes one; a rejected attempt keeps it; the file is rewritten so a restart cannot resurrect a spent authorization. The agent cannot supply a reason for acting: proposals have no such field, and E24 proves the claimed reason cannot affect the outcome. This closes a gap that per-argument provenance leaves open: content that manipulates whether the agent acts, using values the principal supplied.

Design rules. Proposals are exactly {tool, args}: a proposal carrying any other field, such as a provenance label, is refused rather than ignored, and the broker assigns provenance itself. The invocation that executes is exactly the one the kernel decided; execution itself can still fail, and responses say so. Path arguments must be in normal form, because kernel prefix rules compare strings, and the real path is re-checked before touching disk. Responses report the kernel's decision separately from whether execution happened. Evidence comes before effect: a prepared record is written and synced to disk before any action, and if it cannot be written, nothing is performed; the outcome is recorded afterwards, so an unrecorded outcome always shows as prepared-without-outcome. Responses report the effect (none, succeeded, failed, unknown) and the evidence status. A client that sent a request but got no valid reply reports unknown, never reject. The audit log is hash-chained, starts with fingerprints of the config and registry, and is verified at startup: the broker refuses to run on a broken chain. Hash chaining detects edits, but not truncation of the most recent entries without an external checkpoint.

Adversarial hardening (0.8). Paths are resolved by walking from a handle on the workspace, one directory at a time, never following symlinks, so a path cannot be redirected between check and use. Writes are compare-and-swap: the new file is exchanged in atomically (renameat2), the displaced content is checked against the recorded before-state, and on a mismatch the exchange is undone, restoring the other writer's change. Exclusive locks stop a second broker from sharing the audit log or intents; the audit log acts as a clock witness; each connection's caller is identified by the kernel. At startup the broker reconciles any request left without an outcome. A proposal may carry an idempotency_key, so a retry after an unknown result reports already_applied instead of writing twice. Each written file carries an attestation (an HMAC under a broker-held key) naming the request that wrote it, and verify_world checks the files against the log in both directions, catching changes made outside the broker and log entries that were dropped. Every response carries a basis: its claims, each with the theorems and assumptions it rests on, and a claim with no theorem behind it says so. Eleven adversarial probes (tests/adversarial_probes.py) must all hold on every push.

Limits. Tools: read_file, list_dir, write_file. Registry patterns widen what the principal vouches for, and pattern breadth is the principal's responsibility. Payload is not checked for truth, harm, or sensitive data: information flow is out of scope. Without --intents, argument provenance alone does not address intent manipulation. Intents are per tool: an authorized intent does not fix which content is sent beyond what the policy's rules fix. The kernel's prefix rules compare strings and assume canonical input, which the broker supplies; the bare kernel alone would pass a traversal such as /ws/../etc. The mediation evidence covers the reference deployment only; any other deployment has to establish mediation itself, and a container escape is a failure of the isolation layer, not of DARM. The Python broker is certified against the model, not proved. The full list, including the limits of the 0.8 defences, is in THREAT_MODEL.md.

DARM Verify (v0.4)

Check any authorization gate against the DARM kernel. Wrap the gate in an adapter, a function from a DARM request to a Verdict. Verify runs seeded scenarios through both the gate and the kernel and reports every disagreement:

• false admit: the gate allows what the kernel rejects, labeled with the kernel's reason (T, O, A, S, or P)

• false reject: the gate blocks what the kernel admits

  darm-verify --adapter darmguard-v0.1 --n 1000 --json report.json

Worked example: DARM Guard's own v0.1, 1,000 scenarios, seed 20260922:

No false rejects. Every false admit matches a mechanism stated in darm-monitor's formalization of v0.1 (IC1RuntimeSemantics, R22), checked case by case against the saved report.

Writing an adapter for your own gate:

from darm_guard.verify import verify, Verdict

def my_gate(req):     # req has "policy", "credential", "invocation"
    ...               # translate req into your gate's terms and ask it
    return Verdict(admitted, reason)

print(verify("my-gate", my_gate, n=1000).summary())

Third-party adapters. darm-verify includes adapters for AgentLock and Agent-Airlock, each probed against a specific release and translating only what the probes confirmed; scenarios a gate cannot express are declined with a reason rather than forced. Their results are shared with each project's maintainers before any publication.

Scope. Divergences are measured against the kernel's semantics and against your adapter's translation of each scenario, so a divergence can mean a gap in the gate or a limit of the translation. The JSON report includes every scenario so a person can tell which. Scenarios are generated from a small vocabulary: they test decision logic, not real workloads. Verify requires the kernel (darm-guard-install-kernel) and stops if the kernel errors, rather than reporting without a referee.

Three Modes

OBSERVE (default) -- logs and classifies every call. Never blocks. Prints a warning saying so.

GOVERN -- returns a rejection with a typed diagnosis. Your code must honour it.

ENFORCE -- as GOVERN, plus an append-only JSON-lines audit file.

from darm_guard import Mode
guard = DARMGuard(policy=p, credential=c, mode=Mode.GOVERN)
result = guard.check({"code_exec"})
# result.admitted == False
# O-failure: code_exec -- not in observation model

Claim strata

Each layer's claim is weaker than the one above it, and none inherits another's.

What is and is not guaranteed

The full threat model, trusted computing base, and assumption list are in THREAT_MODEL.md.

The v0.1 DARMGuard API operates at the tool-name level, and the notes below apply to it. For argument-level, kernel-computed decisions, use KernelGuard (above). It is grounded in a machine-checked Lean theory, but the Python runtime itself is not formally verified.

Guaranteed by the runtime:

• Credentials and policies are immutable once constructed.
• The delta (requested tools not in the credential) is computed exactly.
• Decisions are deterministic: the same inputs give the same result.
• Within one process, every check is appended to the session audit log.

Proved in Lean about this runtime (darm-monitor):

• The v0.1.0 decision rule is formalized exactly and proved equivalent to a single inclusion condition (IC1RuntimeSemantics).
• Because v0.1.x observes only tool names, no authorizer built on its observations can separate a safe call from a forbidden call to the same tool (R22RuntimeImplementationCorrespondence).
• A runtime that also observes arguments recovers that distinction (R22). This is the specification for v0.2.

Not guaranteed -- assumed:

• Complete mediation: calls that bypass the guard are invisible to it.
• Enforcement: in GOVERN mode the guard returns a decision; it cannot stop code that ignores it.
• Argument-level or effect-level safety: file_read on any path is treated the same.
• Authorization of credential expansion: update_credential is not access-controlled.
• Freshness at execution time: expiry is checked when check() runs, not when the tool runs.
• Session state across processes or restarts.
• The D (domain) and S (semantic) conditions: classified in the theory, not enforced at runtime.

ODATS Diagnosis

Each condition is proved independently necessary in the Lean theory: removing any one admits a countermodel.

Session Scope Tracking

Tracks cumulative scope across a session, within one process.

guard.check({"file_read"})
guard.check({"web_search"})
print(guard.scope())   # cumulative scope and drift

Temporal Freshness

from datetime import datetime, timedelta
cred = Credential(tools=frozenset(["file_read"]),
                  issued_at=datetime(2026, 9, 1), ttl=timedelta(hours=4))

LangChain Integration

from darm_guard.integrations import guard_tools
guarded = guard_tools(agent.tools, guard=my_guard)

Formal Backing

The conditions behind each check are proved in darm-monitor. See FORMAL_BACKING.md for the theorem map. 1,100+ theorems, zero sorry, CI-audited for sorryAx.

Roadmap

• v0.3 -- KernelGuard: invocation-level, provenance-aware, decisions computed by the Lean kernel.
• v0.4 -- DARM Verify; proved kernel correspondence to E17, E18, and R22 (K3); kernel-checked certification of the shipped binary.
• v0.5 -- DARM Broker for the filesystem domain (read-only): B1 model and certificates, credential lifetime, CI mediation tests.
• v0.6 -- writes: registry patterns (B2a); role-aware kernel K4, where payload cannot buy authority; write_file; the complete broker model B3 with 2,000 certified facts; kernel-v0.2.0.
• v0.7 -- intents: E24 epistemic premise transfer and the single-use intent gate, certified against the broker; darm-verify adapters for AgentLock and Agent-Airlock.
• v0.7.1 -- evidence before effect: fail-closed prepared records, explicit effect states, startup chain verification, atomic writes. Fixes a 0.7.0 gap in which an effect could occur with no record and the client was told it was rejected.
• v0.8 -- adversarial hardening: race-free paths, compare-and-swap writes, single-owner locks, a clock witness, kernel-verified callers, startup reconciliation, idempotency keys, file attestation with verify_world, and an evidence basis in every response; B4, B5 and B6 proved; eleven adversarial probes gate every push.
• v0.8.1 -- corrects an overclaim: retry non-repetition was attributed to B6's final-state theorem; it holds for keyed requests and is now proved in B7.
• v0.8.2 (this release) -- fixes 'already applied' being reported after a failed or unresolved keyed attempt (probes P11, P12); proved sound in B7b.
• Next -- an external audit checkpoint; in-flight revocation; per-resource intents and delegation; certifying the Python broker against B4-B6; publishing third-party comparisons with their maintainers.
• Later -- credential-holding enforcement broker for one domain; gated credential expansion.

License

MIT

Olusanya Gbolahan V -- PerceptraAI Lab