Skylos

Open-source, local-first checks for dead code, security issues, secrets, quality regressions, and AI-code mistakes before merge.

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What Is Skylos?

Skylos is an open-source static analysis CLI for Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Java, Go, Kotlin, PHP, Rust, Dart, C#, Shell, and deployment config. It runs locally by default and can also be used as a CI/CD PR gate.

Use Skylos when you want one command to check a repo or pull request for:

• dead code and unused files
• security flaws and dangerous data flows
• secrets and dependency CVEs
• CI/CD and edge-device deployment misconfigurations
• quality regressions such as complexity, duplicate branches, and deep nesting
• common AI-generated code mistakes, including missing guards, fake helpers, invented package APIs, and impossible dependency versions
• LLM app risks such as unsafe tool use and missing output validation

Start In 60 Seconds

pip install skylos
skylos .

The default scan focuses on dead code. Add security, secrets, quality, dependency, and AI-defect checks with -a:

skylos . -a

Run only evidence-backed AI defect checks with:

skylos . --ai-defects

Verify a changed file or range before an agent hands it to review:

skylos verify . --file src/app.py --range 40:75 --project-context

skylos verify schema version 2 returns pass, fail, or incomplete. incomplete means a requested proof could not be established, such as a third-party TS/JS import, computed namespace member, unsupported language-local API check, or parser surface that Skylos could not prove; it exits 2 unless --no-fail is set. The coverage object lists detected languages, expected checks, language support, missing checks, completed/skipped checks, checked references, and deterministic skip reasons.

Deterministic local/workspace API verification currently covers Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, Go, and Java without executing target code. PHP, Rust, Dart, C#, Kotlin, and Shell retain their existing static-analysis coverage, but their local API proof is reported as unsupported and therefore incomplete. See AI Code Verification Coverage.

Create a local AI hallucination contract for repo-specific generated-code truth. skylos verify auto-discovers .skylos/ai-contract.yml:

skylos contract init
skylos contract inspect
skylos verify .

Test a running agent against deterministic response and tool-use scenarios:

skylos agent init
skylos agent test --allow-contract-endpoint

Create a project config with thresholds, ignores, template hooks, and vibe dictionary extensions:

skylos init

Create a starter local rule pack:

skylos rules init
skylos rules validate .skylos/rules/local.yml
skylos rules list --json
skylos rules list cross --json
skylos rules list --packs --json
skylos cache stats

Generate a GitHub Actions PR gate:

skylos cicd init
git add .github/workflows/skylos.yml
git commit -m "Add Skylos CI gate"
git push

Need more commands? Read the CLI Reference.

Common Workflows

What Skylos Catches

See the full Rules Reference.

Verify AI Agents Before They Ship

Runtime guardrails are the WAF; Skylos is the SAST. skylos discover inventories every LLM integration in a codebase (provider SDKs, agent frameworks including the OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK, and Google ADK, MCP servers and their tools, direct HTTP calls to LLM APIs or OpenAI-compatible gateways, plus agent tools, prompt sites, and input sources), and skylos defend verifies the guardrails around them — deterministically, locally, with no model in the loop — then gates CI and emits auditor-ready evidence.

skylos discover .                               # inventory LLM integrations and agent tools
skylos defend .                                 # score guardrails (13 weighted checks)
skylos defend . --format md -o evidence.md      # auditor evidence report + attestation
skylos defend . --format sarif -o defend.sarif  # GitHub code scanning upload
skylos defend . --fail-on critical              # CI gate: exit 1 on critical gaps
skylos defend . --owasp-framework agentic       # report against OWASP Agentic ASI Top 10

Per integration it verifies: dangerous output sinks (eval/exec/subprocess), agent tool scope and typed schemas, prompt-injection exposure (delimiters, untrusted input paths, RAG context isolation), output validation, PII filtering, and model pinning — plus ops checks (logging, cost controls, rate limiting) scored separately so they never inflate the security score.

• OWASP mapping: LLM Top 10 (2024/2025) and Agentic ASI Top 10 (2026).
• Evidence report (--format md): integration inventory, per-check results, OWASP coverage, regulatory framework evidence (EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001 — "evidence toward" mappings, never compliance claims), and a remediation appendix.
• Attestation: JSON/md/SARIF reports carry a reproducible SHA-256 digest over file contents, policy, plugin set, integration inventory, scores, and full check evidence — re-run on the same tree with the same flags and Skylos version, and the digest must match.
• CI-native: skylos cicd init --defend generates the workflow step, the skylos-defend pre-commit hook gates locally, and $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY gets a score summary automatically in Actions.
• Policy as code: skylos-defend.yaml pins gate thresholds and severity overrides (--policy).
• Agent-native: the verify_agent MCP tool lets coding agents verify the agents they build — deterministic verification, not AI checking AI.

Static pre-deployment verification complements runtime controls (gateways, policy engines, human approval flows); it does not replace them. Full guide: docs/agent-verification.md.

Test Running Agent Behavior

Skylos separates generated-code truth, static agent guardrails, and observed runtime behavior:

Create .skylos/agent-test.yml, then test a live OpenAI-compatible endpoint:

skylos agent init
skylos agent test --allow-contract-endpoint

Or evaluate captured evidence without a network call:

skylos agent test --observations agent-observations.json
skylos agent test --observations agent-observations.json \
  --format json --output agent-results.json

Version 1 deterministically checks exact response substrings, required, allowed, and forbidden tool calls, tool arguments and sequence, maximum call count, explicit refusals, and explicit source IDs. Missing typed evidence is incomplete, never pass; exit codes are 0 pass, 1 violation, and 2 incomplete/invalid. Tool selection and final-answer source-ID checks are separate one-turn scenarios: Skylos records local replayable evidence but never executes tools returned by the target agent. Offline observations are marked as unverified fixtures rather than runtime proof.

For an authenticated remote endpoint, keep the destination and secret choice in the trusted CLI invocation:

skylos agent test --endpoint https://agent.example.com/v1/chat/completions \
  --allow-remote --auth-env MY_AGENT_API_KEY

Full guide: docs/agent-behavior-testing.md.

How Skylos Fits

Skylos is not a replacement for every specialized scanner. It is a local-first repo and PR checker that puts several common review checks behind one CLI.

• Framework-aware dead code detection: FastAPI, Django, Flask, pytest, SQLAlchemy, Next.js, React, package entrypoints, and common plugin patterns.
• PR-focused output: diff scanning, CI thresholds, GitHub annotations, and baselines for existing findings.
• Local-first operation: core static analysis does not require cloud upload or LLM calls.
• AI-assisted change review: checks for removed validation, auth, logging, CSRF, rate limiting, timeouts, real-package API hallucinations, and other guardrails in generated or edited code.
• Agent-loop verification: skylos verify and MCP verify_change return versioned JSON for only AI-code trust findings, so coding agents can self-correct before a human sees the change.
• Evidence-backed AI defects: --ai-defects and full scans put strict AI-code failure checks under ai_defects, including phantom references, fake package APIs, nonexistent packages, impossible dependency versions, and weakened test assertions. The category/tag is ai_defect; several rules intentionally keep historical SKY-L or SKY-D IDs for suppression and baseline compatibility, while new AI-defect-only checks use SKY-A.
• Verification-backed remediation: security fixes are checked by re-running analysis, and supported findings can include targeted regression-test proof metadata.
• Project-specific rules: add local YAML rules and extend prompt, credential, sensitive-file, and timeout dictionaries from config.
• One command surface: dead code, security, secrets, dependency, quality, technical debt, agent review, and pre-deployment agent verification commands share the same CLI.

Agent Harness Artifacts

skylos agent verify . and skylos agent test record replayable artifacts under .skylos/runs/<run-id> and print the run directory in table output. JSON output includes the same harness summary under the harness key.

Use skylos agent replay .skylos/runs/<run-id> to validate and inspect a saved run without making LLM calls. Add --format json when another agent or CI job needs machine-readable status. A valid replay exits 0; an invalid or corrupt artifact set exits 1 with issue codes. Replay output includes schema_version so CI and agents can detect artifact-contract changes. Replay checks internal consistency and corruption; artifacts are not signed and are not proof against an actor that can rewrite the entire run directory.

Each run directory contains:

• events.jsonl: chronological run, phase, and tool-call events.
• state.json: full observable state, including phases, tool calls, decisions, and budget usage.
• summary.json: compact status, counts, budget, and artifact paths.
• behavior-results.json: normalized runtime assertions, provenance, coverage, and a digest-bound evidence report for skylos agent test runs.

The current harness state is observable and replay-validated. It is not yet a resume mechanism for continuing interrupted verification runs.

Install Options

# Core static analysis
pip install skylos

# LLM-powered agent workflows
pip install "skylos[llm]"

# Ruff Python linting through `skylos lint`
pip install "skylos[lint]"

# All published optional extras
pip install "skylos[all]"

Container image:

docker pull ghcr.io/duriantaco/skylos:latest
docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/work -w /work ghcr.io/duriantaco/skylos:latest . --json --no-provenance

The unqualified image uses Python 3.14. Runtime-specific tags are also published for Python 3.11 through 3.14, so container scans can match a local or CI parser exactly:

docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/work -w /work ghcr.io/duriantaco/skylos:latest-python3.13 . --json --no-provenance

If a Python file cannot be parsed, Skylos reports analysis_errors, omits the grade, and exits with code 2 instead of treating the skipped file as clean.

See Installation for source installs, container usage, and optional dependencies.

Configure Templates And Vibe Checks

Run skylos init to add these sections to pyproject.toml:

[tool.skylos]
exclude = ["node_modules", "dist"]

[tool.skylos.templates]
# security = ".skylos/templates/security.md"
# quality = ".skylos/templates/quality.md"
# security_audit = ".skylos/templates/security_audit.md"
# review = ".skylos/templates/review.md"

[tool.skylos.vibe]
extra_phantom_names = ["verify_enterprise_auth"]
extra_phantom_decorators = ["tenant_admin_required"]
extra_credential_names = ["tenant_signing_secret"]
extra_network_timeout_calls = ["vendor_sdk.fetch"]

[tool.skylos.dead_code]
entrypoints = []

[[tool.skylos.dead_code.entrypoints]]
type = "method"
name = ["create", "pre_hook", "post_hook"]
parent = { name = "Main", base_classes = ["Application"] }
path = "src/**"
reason = "project framework lifecycle hook"

[tool.skylos.contribution]
collect_local_signals = false
contribute_public_corpus = false
structural_signatures_only = true
include_source = false

Template files extend Skylos' built-in prompts; they do not replace the JSON-only output contract or untrusted-code safety rules. Vibe dictionary extensions let teams teach Skylos about local fake-auth helpers, project credential names, sensitive files, and network calls that must set timeouts. Dead-code entrypoints let teams mark proprietary framework classes, lifecycle methods, and decorator-registered functions as live using precise rules for type, name, path, decorators, base classes, and parent classes. Rules must include a symbol selector such as name, decorators, base_classes, or parent; path and module only narrow the match. Contribution signals are off by default; when enabled, Skylos records local structural accept/dismiss/learn events under .skylos/contribution/ without raw source.

By default Skylos discovers [tool.skylos] in pyproject.toml by walking up from the scan path. To use a dedicated TOML config, pass --config-file PATH or set SKYLOS_CONFIG_FILE; standalone files may use either [tool.skylos] or top-level [skylos]. Synced Skylos Cloud policy keeps its protected precedence over repository-controlled config. The top-level [tool.skylos].exclude list applies to the main scan and commands such as skylos debt and skylos clean; pass --exclude for command-local additions or --include-folder to override an excluded folder.

Language Support

TypeScript and JavaScript dead code analysis recognizes package.json entry fields, including bin. For targets under dist/ or out/, it checks the matching src/ location first, then the package root, before the declared output. This also covers dist/bin/palee.js mapping to bin/palee.ts and dist/src/index.js mapping to src/index.ts. If both source locations exist, the src/ mapping keeps priority; unrelated files are not treated as entries.

VitePress configs at .vitepress/config.* and .vitepress/config/index.* are recognised as development entrypoints for .js, .ts, .mjs and .mts. Other files in .vitepress still need a reference or another entrypoint rule. Existing directory conventions such as scripts/ work with native Windows separators too; this does not add general discovery of commands in CI workflows.

Vue single file components (.vue) are skipped by source analysis, including when passed explicitly. Skylos does not yet parse their <script> or <script setup> blocks; separate JavaScript, TypeScript and backend source files are still analyzed. Existing browser script and event references in templates are unaffected.

Go dead-code and security checks require the native skylos-go engine. If Skylos discovers Go files but cannot run that engine, the report is marked incomplete, no grade or clean result is produced, and the CLI exits with status 2. Run skylos doctor to verify engine availability and configure SKYLOS_GO_BIN when using a separately built engine. The official GitHub Action builds the matching native engine automatically.

See Rules Reference for rule families and scanner scope.

Config And Deployment Support

Benchmark Snapshot

Skylos has checked-in regression benchmarks for dead code, security, quality, and agent review. These are strict regression gates, not broad proof that any tool is universally state of the art.

Frozen golden-v0.2 highlights:

For methodology, commands, competitor rows, and caveats, see BENCHMARK.md.

Real-project regression testing

liveness_primer, created and maintained by Matthew Digman, is Skylos's official real-project regression testing tool. On every PR, it compares the base and proposed merge result against the same pinned Python projects and reports which findings were added, removed, or changed.

Read the Analyzer Blast Radius check for the comparison and downloadable reports. These results complement the labeled benchmarks above; a change in finding counts alone does not establish accuracy. See the liveness_primer guide for scope, review steps, and reproduction commands.

Project Evidence

Skylos-assisted dead-code cleanup PRs have been merged in Black, NetworkX, Optuna, mitmproxy, pypdf, beets, and Flagsmith. These are accepted cleanup PRs, not project endorsements. See Real-World Results.

A local Astronomer scan on April 26, 2026 computed 420 stargazers and returned overall trust: A. StarGuard also reported low fake-star risk.

Integrations

Generate a GitHub Actions workflow from the CLI:

skylos cicd init --upload
skylos cicd init --upload --scan-path apps/api

The generated upload workflow uses GitHub OIDC, sends PR head commit/branch metadata, and supports monorepo subprojects through --scan-path.

Documentation Map

Common Questions

Does Skylos replace Bandit, Semgrep, CodeQL, or Vulture?

No. Skylos can run alongside them. It focuses on framework-aware dead-code signal, PR gating, AI-era regression checks, and a combined workflow across dead code, security, secrets, quality, and AI-defect checks.

Does Skylos require an LLM?

No. Core static analysis runs locally without API keys. LLM features are optional through skylos[llm] and agent commands.

Does Skylos replace Ruff?

No. skylos lint is an optional convenience entry point that delegates to Ruff. Install it with pip install "skylos[lint]"; normal Skylos scans do not run Ruff or merge Ruff violations into SKY-* findings.

Can I use it only on changed code?

Yes. Use skylos . -a --diff origin/main locally or configure CI gates to focus on new findings.

How should I handle intentional dynamic code?

Use baselines, whitelists, inline suppressions, or runtime tracing. See the configuration docs and smart tracing docs.

Contributing And Support

• Report security issues through SECURITY.md.
• Open bugs and false-positive reports with minimal repros.
• Check ROADMAP.md for useful contribution areas.
• Read CONTRIBUTING.md before sending a pull request.
• See QUALITY.md for project quality and gate expectations.
• Join the Discord for community support.

License

Skylos is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.