____ ____ ____ _
/ __ \ ___ / __/___ ___ ___ ___ / ___|| | __ _ __ __
/ / / / / _ \/ /_// _ \ / _ \ / __|/ _ \| | | |/ _ |\ \ /\ / /
/ /_/ / / __/ __// __/| | | |\__ \ __/| |___ | | (_| | \ V V /
/_____/ \___/_/ \___/ |_| |_||___/\___| \____||_|\__,_| \_/\_/
DefenseClaw
Security governance for AI coding agents and agentic runtimes.
Scan capabilities before use, inspect runtime traffic, and export durable audit evidence.
DefenseClaw combines a Python operator CLI, a Go gateway, connector hooks, policy, scanners, and observability exporters. It is an enforcement and evidence layer; it does not prove that an agent, model interaction, or third-party capability is risk-free.
Get started
curl -LsSf https://github.com/cisco-ai-defense/defenseclaw/releases/latest/download/install.sh | bash
defenseclaw quickstartThen read the docs. On native Windows, see Install DefenseClaw.
Documentation
The DefenseClaw documentation website is the source of truth for installation, setup, configuration, commands, and operator workflows:
| Topic | Canonical guide | | --- | --- | | Install | Install DefenseClaw | | First run | Quickstart | | Upgrade | Upgrade | | Windows | Native Windows | | Connectors | Connector compatibility | | Guardrails | Guardrail setup | | Configuration | Configuration reference | | CLI | CLI reference | | Observability | Observability |
Repository Markdown is limited to contributor guidance, implementation
contracts, package-local notes, generated schema references, test fixtures, and
historical design records. Start at docs/README.md.
Source development
Source targets are contributor tooling. They are not an installation or upgrade
path for a release-managed host; use the website guides above for those tasks.
The checked-in toolchain contracts are Python >=3.10,<3.14
(pyproject.toml) and Go 1.26.4
(go.mod). CI exercises the TypeScript components with Node.js 24.
git clone https://github.com/cisco-ai-defense/defenseclaw.git
cd defenseclaw
make build
make test
make check
make lintmake build produces checkout artifacts without publishing them or changing
managed installation state; its pycli step may create or update the shared
repository-local .venv. Run make help before using state-changing source
targets. All local source targets share that one locked, test-ready .venv;
there is no separate production-versus-development Python environment to
select. make test, make check, and make py-lint bootstrap that environment
when needed. make all intentionally rebuilds and activates the current
checkout for local development; the lower-level
make install, make dev-install, and scripts/install-dev.sh targets enforce
source-ownership rules and are not an upgrade path. Release installs upgrade
with defenseclaw upgrade, which runs the latest release's installer; see the
upgrade page.
The principal source areas are:
| Area | Path |
| --- | --- |
| Python CLI and TUI | cli/defenseclaw/ |
| Go gateway commands | cmd/ |
| Go implementation packages | internal/ |
| OpenClaw extension | extensions/defenseclaw/ |
| Policy bundles | policies/ |
| Versioned schemas | schemas/ |
| Release and developer automation | scripts/ |
| Tests and fixtures | test/ and component-local _test. files |
See CONTRIBUTING.md for the pull-request workflow and
SECURITY.md for private vulnerability reporting.
License
Apache-2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE`.
Copyright 2026 Cisco Systems, Inc. and its affiliates.