Hound MCP

The dependency bloodhound for AI coding agents.

Why Hound?

AI coding agents recommend and install packages without knowing if they're safe — and most security tools require accounts, API keys, or paid plans to tell you. Hound fixes that: it scans for vulnerabilities, checks licenses, audits dependency trees, and detects typosquatting across 7 ecosystems — zero config, zero API keys, zero cost.

Hound is the only security tool built specifically for AI coding agents — works across npm, PyPI, Go, Cargo, Maven, NuGet, and RubyGems, and plugs into Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, and any MCP client out of the box.

It uses two fully free, unauthenticated public APIs: deps.dev (Google Open Source Insights) and OSV (Google Open Source Vulnerabilities).

Quickstart

Claude Code

Terminal

claude mcp add hound -- npx -y hound-mcp

Claude Desktop / Cursor / Windsurf

Add to your MCP config file:

config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hound": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "hound-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code (Copilot)

config.json

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "hound": {
        "type": "stdio",
        "command": "npx",
        "args": ["-y", "hound-mcp"]
      }
    }
  }
}

Config file locations

Client	Config path
Claude Desktop (macOS)	`~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
Cursor	`~/.cursor/mcp.json`
Windsurf	`~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json`

Tools

12 tools → Full reference with example outputs

Tool	What it does
`hound_audit` ⭐	Scan an entire lockfile for vulnerabilities across all dependencies
`hound_score`	0–100 Hound Score (vulns + scorecard + recency + license) with letter grade
`hound_compare`	Side-by-side comparison of two packages with a recommendation
`hound_preinstall`	GO / CAUTION / NO-GO verdict before installing a package
`hound_upgrade`	Find the minimum safe version upgrade that resolves all known vulns
`hound_license_check`	Scan a lockfile for license compliance against a policy
`hound_vulns`	All known vulnerabilities for a package version, grouped by severity
`hound_inspect`	Full package profile — license, vulns, scorecard, stars, dep count
`hound_tree`	Full resolved dependency tree with transitive deps
`hound_typosquat`	Detect typosquatting variants of a package name
`hound_advisories`	Full advisory details by GHSA, CVE, or OSV ID
`hound_popular`	Scan popular packages for known vulnerabilities

Supported ecosystems: npm · pypi · go · maven · cargo · nuget · rubygems

Built-in Prompts

3 prompts you can invoke directly from your AI client. → Full prompt reference

Prompt	What it does
`security_audit`	Full project security audit — vulns, licenses, typosquats
`package_evaluation`	Go/no-go recommendation before adding a new dependency
`pre_release_check`	Pre-ship dependency scan that flags release blockers

Use Cases

→ See full examples with real lockfiles and expected output

Before merging a PR — scan the lockfile diff to catch newly introduced vulnerabilities before they land in main
Auditing an inherited codebase — run hound_audit on an existing lockfile to get a full report in seconds
Checking a package before adding it — use hound_preinstall to get a GO / CAUTION / NO-GO verdict
License compliance — run hound_license_check to ensure no GPL or AGPL packages sneak into a commercial project
CI security gate — ask your AI agent to run a security audit as part of every release check

Local Development

bash

git clone https://github.com/tiluckdave/hound-mcp.git
cd hound-mcp
pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm test         # run tests
pnpm check        # typecheck + lint + test

Roadmap

Docker support — run Hound as a container for CI/CD pipelines
bun.lockb parser — Bun lockfile support
gradle.lockfile parser — Gradle (Java/Android) ecosystem support
hound_diff tool — compare two lockfile snapshots to surface newly introduced risks
GitHub Action — run hound_audit as a PR check without an AI agent

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Read CONTRIBUTING.md to get started.

The one rule: Hound must stay zero-config and free forever. Don't add features that require API keys or accounts.

Good first issues are labeled and ready.

Community

💬 Questions or ideas? Open a Discussion