roustabout 0.14.0

Docker environment documentation, security auditing, and safe MCP server

roustabout

Structured documentation, security auditing, and compose generation for Docker environments.

Roustabout connects to the Docker API, inspects every running container, and produces:

• Markdown snapshots — complete inventory of images, ports, volumes, networks, env vars, labels
• Security audits — 18 checks covering socket exposure, secrets in env vars, sensitive ports, missing healthchecks, root containers, and more
• Compose generation — reconstructs docker-compose.yml from running containers
• Snapshot diffs — compare two JSON snapshots to see what changed

All output passes through a secret redactor. Environment variables matching configurable patterns are replaced with [REDACTED] before reaching your screen or AI model.

Install

pip install roustabout

# With MCP server support
pip install "roustabout[mcp]"

Docker

docker run --rm \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -e ROUSTABOUT_API_KEY=changeme \
  -p 8077:8077 \
  ghcr.io/featurecreep-cron/roustabout:latest

Then use the CLI remotely: roustabout --url http://server:8077 --api-key changeme snapshot

Quick start

roustabout snapshot                    # document your Docker environment
roustabout audit                       # run security checks
roustabout generate                    # reconstruct a compose file
roustabout diff old.json new.json      # compare snapshots

Remote mode

Connect to a running roustabout server instead of the local Docker socket:

# Save connection (prompts for API key)
roustabout connect http://server:8077

# All commands now use the saved server
roustabout snapshot
roustabout audit

# Or pass credentials explicitly
roustabout --url http://server:8077 --api-key mykey snapshot

# Remove saved connection
roustabout disconnect

Connection details are saved to ~/.config/roustabout/config.toml.

Full CLI reference

# Snapshot options
roustabout snapshot --show-env --output snapshot.md
roustabout snapshot --format json --output snapshot.json
roustabout snapshot --project mystack

# Audit options
roustabout audit --output audit.md --hide-accepted
roustabout audit --format json
roustabout audit --project mystack

# Generate options
roustabout generate --redact --output docker-compose.yml

# Finding management
roustabout accept docker-socket-watchtower "Watchtower needs socket access"
roustabout false-positive secrets-env-nginx "NGINX_HOST is not a secret"
roustabout resolve stale-image-redis "Updated to redis:7.2"

Example audit output

From a homelab running 48 containers:

$ roustabout audit

# Security Audit

**212 findings:** **5 critical**, **40 warning**, **167 info**

| Severity | Check | Count | Containers |
|----------|-------|-------|------------|
| Critical | privileged-mode | 1 | cadvisor |
| Critical | docker-socket | 4 | cronbox, homeassistant, portainer, watchtower |
| Warning | secrets-in-env | 38 | authentik_server, grafana, mariadb, +14 more |
| Warning | host-pid | 1 | node_exporter |
| Info | no-healthcheck | 35 | adguard, bazarr, freshrss, +30 more |
| Info | running-as-root | 29 | adguard, cadvisor, plex, +24 more |

Findings are grouped by category — each explanation appears once, not per container.

MCP server

Five read-only tools, all auto-redacted:

Tool	Description
docker_snapshot	Full markdown inventory
docker_audit	Security findings
docker_container	Single container detail
docker_networks	Network topology
docker_generate	Compose file generation

roustabout-mcp  # run standalone

Claude Code configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "roustabout": {
      "command": "roustabout-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Configuration

Create roustabout.toml in your working directory:

show_env = false
show_labels = true
output = "docker-snapshot.md"
docker_host = "tcp://myhost:2375"
redact_patterns = ["my_custom_secret", "internal_token"]

[severity_overrides]
"docker-socket" = "info"
"secrets-env" = "critical"

Default redaction patterns: password, passwd, passphrase, secret, token, api_key, apikey, credential, private_key, access_key, secret_key. URLs with embedded credentials get partial redaction. Known secret formats (AWS keys, GitHub PATs, JWTs, Stripe keys) are caught by value shape regardless of key name.

Security checks

Check	Default Severity	What it finds
Privileged mode	Critical	Containers running with --privileged
Docker socket mount	Critical	Containers with /var/run/docker.sock
Secrets in env vars	Warning	Env var keys matching secret patterns + value-format detection
Dangerous capabilities	Warning	SYS_ADMIN, NET_ADMIN, SYS_PTRACE, and other risky caps
Host PID namespace	Warning	Containers sharing the host PID namespace
Sensitive ports exposed	Warning	Database, admin, and management ports on 0.0.0.0
Restart loops	Warning	Containers with restart count > 25
OOM killed	Warning	Containers killed by the OOM killer
Missing healthcheck	Info	Containers without health monitoring
Running as root	Info	Containers without a user directive
Host network mode	Info	Containers using network_mode: host
Sensitive host mounts	Info	/etc, /root, or /home mounted from host
No log rotation	Info	Containers without max-size on json-file/local log driver
No resource limits	Info	Containers without a memory limit
Missing restart policy	Info	Containers without restart policy
Stale images	Info	Untagged or :latest images without pinned digest
Image age	Info	Container images older than 90 days
Daemon live-restore	Info	Docker daemon without live-restore enabled
Daemon log rotation	Warning	Docker daemon using json-file/local without default log rotation

Findings can be triaged with roustabout accept, false-positive, or resolve. State is stored in roustabout.state.toml.

Requirements

• Python 3.12+
• Access to a Docker socket (local or remote)

Upgrading

# CLI
pip install --upgrade roustabout

# Server (if running the Docker image)
docker pull ghcr.io/featurecreep-cron/roustabout:latest
docker compose up -d  # or restart your container

Both the CLI and server should be on the same version. The CLI warns if the server is outdated.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Support

If you find roustabout useful, consider buying us a coffee.

License

MIT