Bulwark
AI agent governance: content scanning, audit logs, policy evaluation, session management.
Open source Open in the app JSON README (API)
About
AI agent governance: content scanning, audit logs, policy evaluation, session management.
Details
- Kind
- MCP servers
- Topic
- AI, RAG & memory
- Publisher
- bpolania
- Origin
- official
- Category
- ferramentas
- Transport
- local
- Version
- 0.2.0
- Stars
- 4
- Last push
- 2026-02-25T08:35:56Z
- Repository state
- ativo
- Language
- Rust
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Added
- 2026-08-29 03:02:32
- Updated
- 2026-08-29 03:02:32
- Origin id
io.github.bpolania/bulwark
README
# Bulwark
**Open-source governance layer for AI agents.**
Bulwark sits between AI agents and external tools, enforcing policies, managing credentials, inspecting content, and maintaining a complete audit trail. One policy governs all your agents — Claude Code, OpenClaw, Codex, or any MCP/HTTP client.
## Why Bulwark?
AI agents are powerful but ungoverned. They can access any tool, leak any credential, and leave no audit trail. Bulwark fixes this:
- **Policy enforcement** — YAML-based rules control which tools agents can use, with glob patterns, scope-based precedence, and hot-reload
- **Credential management** — Agents never see real secrets. Bulwark injects credentials at the last mile, encrypted at rest with age
- **Content inspection** — Scan requests and responses for secrets, PII, and prompt injection. Block or redact automatically
- **Audit logging** — Every action recorded in a tamper-evident SQLite database with blake3 hash chains
- **Rate limiting** — Token-bucket rate limits per session, operator, tool, or globally. Cost tracking with budget enforcement
- **MCP-native** — Works as an MCP gateway or HTTP forward proxy. Governance metadata on every tool call response
## Install
```bash
# Homebrew (macOS / Linux)
brew install bpolania/tap/bulwark
# Docker
docker pull ghcr.io/bpolania/bulwark
# From source
git clone https://github.com/bpolania/bulwark.git
cd bulwark && cargo build --release
```
## Quick Start: Govern Claude Code with GitHub
This walkthrough connects Claude Code to GitHub through Bulwark. Every tool call is policy-evaluated, audited, and credential-injected — in about 5 minutes.
**Prerequisites:** [Claude Code](https://code.claude.com/) installed, a [GitHub personal access token](https://github.com/settings/tokens), and Node.js/npm (for the GitHub MCP server).
### 1. Initialize and verify
```bash
bulwark init my-project && cd my-project
bulwark doctor
```
`doctor` runs 9 diagnostic checks. All should pass.
### 2. Store your GitHub token
```bash
bulwark cred add github-token --type bearer_token
# Prompts for the token — hidden input, encrypted with age at rest
```
Configure the credential-to-tool binding in your bindings file so Bulwark knows to inject this token for GitHub tool calls.
### 3. Configure the upstream GitHub server
Edit `bulwark.yaml`:
```yaml
mcp_gateway:
upstream_servers:
- name: github
command: "npx"
args: ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-github"]
env:
GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN: "${GITHUB_TOKEN}"
policy:
policies_dir: "./policies"
hot_reload: true
audit:
enabled: true
inspect:
enabled: true
inspect_requests: true
inspect_responses: true
```
Make sure `GITHUB_TOKEN` is set in your shell (`export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_...`).
### 4. Write a policy
```bash
cat > policies/base.yaml << 'EOF'
metadata:
name: quickstart-policy
scope: global
rules:
- name: allow-reads
description: "Allow all read operations"
match:
actions: ["read_*", "get_*", "list_*", "search_*"]
verdict: allow
priority: 10
- name: allow-github-writes
description: "Allow creating issues, comments, PRs"
match:
tools: ["github__*"]
actions: ["create_*", "update_*"]
verdict: allow
priority: 10
- name: block-destructive
description: "Block all delete and force-push operations"
match:
actions: ["delete_*", "force_push_*"]
verdict: deny
priority: 20
message: "Destructive operations are blocked by policy"
- name: default-deny
match: {}
verdict: deny
priority: -100
message: "No policy explicitly allows this action"
EOF
bulwark policy validate
```
### 5. Create a session and connect Claude Code
```bash
# Create a session (--ttl is in seconds: 28800 = 8 hours)
bulwark session create --operator $(whoami) --agent-type claude-code --ttl 28800
# → Token: bwk_sess_7f3a...
export BULWARK_SESSION="bwk_sess_7f3a..." # paste your actual token
# Register Bulwark as an MCP server in Claude Code
claude mcp add --transport stdio bulwark \
--env BULWARK_SESSION=$BULWARK_SESSION \
-- bulwark mcp start
```
### 6. Use Claude Code — now governed
Start Claude Code. GitHub tools appear namespaced as `github__list_issues`, `github__create_issue`, etc.
Try it:
> "List the open issues in my repo"
Open a second terminal:
```bash
bulwark audit tail
```
```
22:01:03 github__list_issues ✓ allow 3ms (allow-reads)
```
Every call is logged with the verdict, matched rule, and timing. Now try something destructive:
> "Delete issue #1"
```
22:02:01 github__delete_issue ✗ deny <1ms (block-destructive)
```
Blocked. Sub-millisecond — policy evaluation happens in memory. The agent gets a structured error explaining which rule denied it.
### What just happened
Claude Code connected to Bulwark (not directly to GitHub). For every tool call, Bulwark validated the session, scanned for secrets/PII, evaluated the policy, injected the real GitHub token, scanned the response, and recorded a tamper-evident audit event. Same agent experience — full governance underneath.
## Going Deeper
**Content inspection** — 13 built-in patterns scan for AWS keys, GitHub tokens, private keys, PII, and prompt injection. Redaction happens before content reaches the agent.
```bash
bulwark inspect rules
bulwark inspect scan --text "my key is AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE"
```
**Policy replay** — Preview the impact of policy changes against real audit history before deploying:
```bash
bulwark policy test --dir ./new-policies/ --since 1h
```
**Audit forensics** — Reconstruct a session timeline and verify the hash chain:
```bash
bulwark session inspect <session-id>
bulwark audit verify
bulwark audit export --since 24h --format json
```
**HTTP proxy mode** — For non-MCP agents, Bulwark runs as a forward proxy with TLS interception:
```bash
bulwark proxy start
bulwark ca export # trust the CA in your HTTP client
```
## Architecture
```
┌─────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐
│ │ │ Bulwark │ │ │
│ AI Agent │────>│ Session > Inspect > Policy > Inject > Proxy │────>│ Upstream │
│ (Claude, │<────│ <── Audit <── Inspect <── Response <─────── │<────│ Tool/API │
│ Codex, │ │ │ │ │
│ custom) │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────┘
└─────────────┘
```
## Integration Modes
| Mode | Transport | Best For |
|------|-----------|----------|
| MCP Gateway (stdio) | stdio/JSON-RPC | Claude Code, OpenClaw, any MCP client |
| MCP Gateway (HTTP) | Streamable HTTP | Remote agents, MCP registry, multi-agent |
| HTTP Proxy | HTTP/HTTPS | Codex, curl, any HTTP client |
## Example Policy
```yaml
# policies/base.yaml
metadata:
name: my-policy
scope: global
rules:
- name: allow-reads
verdict: allow
priority: 10
match:
actions: ["read*", "get*", "list*"]
- name: block-destructive-in-prod
verdict: deny
priority: 100
match:
actions: ["delete*", "drop*"]
conditions:
environments: ["production"]
- name: default-deny
verdict: deny
match: {}
```
See [examples/policies/](./examples/policies/) for complete policy sets (startup, enterprise, development, multi-agent).
## CLI
```
bulwark init <path> # Scaffold a new project
bulwark proxy start # Start HTTP/HTTPS proxy
bulwark mcp start # Start MCP gateway (stdio)
bulwark mcp serve # Start MCP gateway (HTTP)
bulwark doctor # Diagnose setup issues (9 checks)
bulwark status # Health dashboard
bulwark policy validate # Validate policy files
bulwark policy test --dir <path> # Test policies against audit log
bulwark session create|list|revoke|inspect
bulwark cred add|list|remove|test
bulwark audit search|tail|stats|export|verify
bulwark inspect scan|rules # Content inspection
bulwark ca export|path # CA certificate management
bulwark completions <shell> # Shell completions (bash/zsh/fish)
```
## Documentation
- [Getting Started](./docs/getting-started.md)
- [Architecture Overview](./docs/architecture.md)
- [Policy Reference](./docs/policy-reference.md)
- [Configuration Reference](./docs/configuration.md)
- [Credential Management](./docs/credentials.md)
- [Audit System](./docs/audit.md)
- [Content Inspector](./docs/content-inspector.md)
- [Rate Limiting](./docs/rate-limiting.md)
- [Threat Model](./docs/threat-model.md)
- Agent Guides: [Claude Code](./docs/agents/claude-code.md) | [Codex](./docs/agents/codex.md) | [OpenClaw](./docs/agents/openclaw.md)
## Development
```bash
git clone https://github.com/bpolania/bulwark.git
cd bulwark
cargo build --workspace
cargo test --workspace # 487 tests
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
```
### Project Structure
```
crates/
cli/ # CLI binary and commands
proxy/ # HTTP/HTTPS forward proxy with TLS MITM
mcp/ # MCP governance gateway
config/ # Configuration loading and types
policy/ # YAML policy engine with hot-reload
vault/ # Credential storage and session management
audit/ # Tamper-evident audit logging
inspect/ # Content inspection (secrets, PII, injection)
ratelimit/ # Token-bucket rate limiter and cost tracker
common/ # Shared types and error definitions
```
## License
Apache 2.0. See [LICENSE](./LICENSE).