Substr8 CLI

Verifiable AI Infrastructure — The governance plane for AI agents.

Substr8 provides provable, auditable, and deterministic infrastructure for AI agents. Any framework that can call tools can plug into Substr8.

What Substr8 Does

Installation

pip install substr8

Quick Start

For Developers (Any Framework)

Connect your LangGraph, AutoGen, PydanticAI, or custom agent to Substr8:

# Start the MCP governance server
substr8 mcp start --local

# In another terminal, run your agent
python my_agent.py  # calls Substr8 MCP tools

Your agent calls MCP tools like substr8.run.start, substr8.policy.check, substr8.memory.write. Every action is policy-checked and logged.

For Operators (Infrastructure)

Deploy the full Substr8 stack:

# Start the gateway (OpenClaw runtime + governance services)
substr8 gateway start

# Check status
substr8 gateway status

Command Groups

substr8 mcp — MCP Governance Server

The MCP server exposes Substr8 governance as tools any framework can call.

substr8 mcp start [--local] [--require-auth] [--port 3456]
substr8 mcp stop
substr8 mcp status
substr8 mcp tools           # List available MCP tools

12 MCP Tools:

With Auth + Rate Limiting:

# Require API keys
substr8 mcp start --local --require-auth

# Call with key
curl -H "X-Substr8-Key: sk-substr8-xxx" http://localhost:3456/tools/run/start

Rate limits: Free (100/min), Pro (1000/min), Enterprise (10000/min)

substr8 gateway — Infrastructure Orchestration

Manages Docker Swarm stacks for the Substr8 runtime.

substr8 gateway start       # Deploy OpenClaw + FDAA proxy + services
substr8 gateway stop        # Tear down stacks
substr8 gateway status      # Health check all services
substr8 gateway logs        # View service logs

What it deploys:

• OpenClaw runtime (compiles markdown agents → system prompts)
• FDAA proxy (CIA middleware for LLM calls)
• GAM service (memory with provenance)
• Postgres/pgvector (embeddings)

When to use: You're running your own Substr8 infrastructure (self-hosted).

substr8 dev — Developer Scaffolding

Creates starter projects and demos.

substr8 dev init            # Scaffold example agents in current directory
substr8 dev demo            # Run a complete demo (start → agent → audit)

What dev init creates:

my-project/
├── examples/
│   ├── langgraph/agent.py
│   ├── pydantic-ai/agent.py
│   └── autogen/agent.py
├── .env.example
└── README.md

When to use: You're starting a new project that uses Substr8.

substr8 gam — Git-Native Agent Memory

Manage agent memory with cryptographic provenance.

substr8 gam init                    # Initialize repository
substr8 gam remember "text" --tag x # Store a memory
substr8 gam recall "query"          # Search memories
substr8 gam verify <id>             # Verify provenance
substr8 gam status                  # Show status

substr8 fdaa — Agent Identity & Registry

Package, version, and register agents.

substr8 fdaa hash <path>            # Hash an agent bundle
substr8 fdaa register <path>        # Register with FDAA registry
substr8 fdaa verify <hash>          # Verify agent integrity

substr8 acc — Capability Control

Manage agent policies.

substr8 acc policy list             # List policies
substr8 acc policy check <action>   # Check if action is allowed

substr8 dct — Audit Ledger

Query tamper-evident logs.

substr8 dct timeline <run_id>       # Get audit trail
substr8 dct verify <run_id>         # Verify chain integrity

How the Commands Work Together

# 1. OPERATORS: Deploy infrastructure
substr8 gateway start

# 2. DEVELOPERS: Start governance server
substr8 mcp start --local

# 3. DEVELOPERS: Scaffold a new project
mkdir my-agent && cd my-agent
substr8 dev init

# 4. DEVELOPERS: Run your agent
python examples/langgraph/agent.py

# 5. ANYONE: View audit trail
substr8 dct timeline run-abc123

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Your Agent Framework                 │
│              (LangGraph, AutoGen, PydanticAI)           │
└─────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┘
                          │ HTTP tool calls
                          ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   Substr8 MCP Server                    │
│                   (substr8 mcp start)                   │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  RIL  │  ACC  │  DCT  │  GAM  │  CIA                    │
└───────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴─────────────────────────┘
                          │
                          ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   Substr8 Gateway                       │
│              (substr8 gateway start)                    │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  OpenClaw  │  FDAA Proxy  │  Postgres  │  GAM Service   │
└────────────┴──────────────┴────────────┴────────────────┘

Hosted Endpoints

Research

Links

• Website: substr8labs.com
• Blog: substr8labs.substack.com
• GitHub: github.com/Substr8-Labs
• Twitter: @substr8labs

License

MIT — Substr8 Labs

Frameworks run agents. Substr8 proves what they did.