Capability SDK

Shared Go SDK for building security capabilities for the Guard platform.

Packages

pkg/capability - Capability Interface

Defines the standardized interface that security scanners implement.

Types:

// Target - what a capability scans
type Target struct {
    Type  TargetType        // domain, ip, port, url, cloud_resource
    Value string            // The target value
    Meta  map[string]string // Additional context
}

// Finding - what a capability discovers
type Finding struct {
    Type     FindingType    // asset, risk, attribute
    Severity Severity       // info, low, medium, high, critical
    Data     map[string]any // Flexible payload
}

// Capability - the interface to implement
type Capability interface {
    Name() string
    Run(ctx context.Context, target Target) ([]Finding, error)
}

Example Implementation:

type SubdomainScanner struct{}

func (s *SubdomainScanner) Name() string {
    return "subdomain-scanner"
}

func (s *SubdomainScanner) Run(ctx context.Context, target capability.Target) ([]capability.Finding, error) {
    if target.Type != capability.TargetDomain {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("expected domain, got %s", target.Type)
    }

    // Scan logic here...

    return []capability.Finding{
        {
            Type: capability.FindingAsset,
            Data: map[string]any{
                "dns":   "found.example.com",
                "class": "domain",
            },
        },
    }, nil
}

pkg/formatter - Output Formatting

Multi-format output system for rendering scan results.

Supported Formats:

• Terminal (streaming, colored via lipgloss)
• JSON (buffered, pretty-print option)
• NDJSON (streaming, newline-delimited)
• Markdown (buffered, template-based reports)
• SARIF 2.1.0 (buffered, GitHub/Azure integration)

Basic Usage:

import "github.com/praetorian-inc/capability-sdk/pkg/formatter"

// Create a formatter
f, err := formatter.New(formatter.Config{
    Format: formatter.FormatJSON,
    Writer: os.Stdout,
    Pretty: true,
})
if err != nil {
    return err
}
defer f.Close()

// Format findings
f.Format(ctx, formatter.Finding{
    ID:       "vuln-001",
    Title:    "Security Issue",
    Severity: formatter.SeverityHigh,
})

// Complete with summary
f.Complete(ctx, formatter.Summary{TotalFindings: 1, HighCount: 1})

Converting Capability Findings:

import (
    "github.com/praetorian-inc/capability-sdk/pkg/capability"
    "github.com/praetorian-inc/capability-sdk/pkg/formatter"
)

// Run capability
findings, err := scanner.Run(ctx, target)

// Convert and format for CLI output
for _, cf := range findings {
    ff := formatter.FromCapabilityFinding(cf)
    f.Format(ctx, ff)
}

Multi-Output (TeeFormatter):

terminal, _ := formatter.New(formatter.Config{Format: formatter.FormatTerminal, Writer: os.Stdout})
jsonFile, _ := formatter.New(formatter.Config{Format: formatter.FormatJSON, Writer: file})

tee, _ := formatter.NewTee(terminal, jsonFile)
tee.Format(ctx, finding) // Writes to both

Concurrent Submission (Aggregator):

agg := formatter.NewAggregator(f, 100) // buffer size 100

// From multiple goroutines
go func() { agg.Submit(ctx, finding1) }()
go func() { agg.Submit(ctx, finding2) }()

agg.Close() // Wait for all writes

pkg/clisurface - CLI Documentation Drift Gate

Walks a cobra command tree and generates, splices and checks the documentation artifacts built from it, so committed docs cannot silently drift from the binary. Build a Docs with clisurface.New, then use Docs.Write to regenerate and Docs.CheckArtifacts plus Docs.LintRepo to fail CI when the committed files, prose or Go comments no longer match the CLI. See go doc ./pkg/clisurface for the full API.

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     STANDALONE TOOL                                 │
│  Implements: capability.Capability                                  │
│  Produces:   []capability.Finding                                   │
└────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┘
                             │
              ┌──────────────┴──────────────┐
              ▼                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────────────────-────────┐
│   CLI OUTPUT PATH       │    │       CHARIOT INTEGRATION PATH       │
│                         │    │                                      │
│  capability.Finding     │    │  capability.Finding                  │
│         │               │    │         │                            │
│         ▼               │    │         ▼                            │
│  formatter.Finding      │    │  Chariot Adapter (in chariot repo)   │
│  (FromCapabilityFinding)│    │         │                            │
│         │               │    │         ▼                            │
│         ▼               │    │  Tabularium Model (Asset/Risk/Attr)  │
│  Terminal/JSON/SARIF    │    │         │                            │
│                         │    │         ▼                            │
│     stdout/file         │    │     job.Send() → Storage             │
└─────────────────────────┘    └───────────────────────────────-──────┘

Extending Types

Adding a New Target Type

1. Open issue: "Need git_repo target type for X"
2. Backend dev reviews Tabularium mapping
3. Add to pkg/capability/target.go:

   TargetGitRepo TargetType = "git_repo"

4. Update Valid() method
5. Add tests
6. Update Chariot adapter

Adding a New Finding Type

1. Open issue: "Need relationship finding type for X"
2. Define Data schema
3. Add to pkg/capability/finding.go
4. Update converter in pkg/formatter/capability_converter.go
5. Add tests

Modules Using This SDK

• diocletian - Cloud security scanner

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.

The license is stated once, at the repo root. Do not add per-file copyright or license headers — including when porting code from a sibling that carries them. A root LICENSE is the authoritative statement; repeating it on every file is not required.