vet

[!NOTE] vet supports special mode for Agent Skills. Run vet scan --agent-skill <owner/repo> to scan an Agent Skill hosted in a GitHub repository.

Why vet?

70-90% of modern software is open source code — how do you know it's safe?

Traditional SCA tools drown you in CVE noise. vet takes a different approach:

• Catch malware before it ships — Zero-day detection through static and dynamic behavioral analysis, not just advisory lookups
• Cut through vulnerability noise — Analyzes your actual code usage to surface only the risks that matter
• Secure AI-generated code — MCP server integration protects against slopsquatting in tools like Cursor, VS Code, and Claude Code
• Enforce policy as code — Express security, license, and quality requirements as CEL expressions that gate your CI/CD pipeline

Free for open source. Hosted SaaS available at SafeDep.

Quick Start

Install in seconds:

# macOS & Linux
brew install safedep/tap/vet

# Using npm
npm install @safedep/vet

or download a pre-built binary

Get started immediately:

# Scan for malware in your dependencies
vet scan -D . --malware-query

# Fail CI on critical vulnerabilities
vet scan -D . --filter 'vulns.critical.exists(p, true)' --filter-fail

# Get API key for advanced malware detection
vet cloud quickstart

Architecture

vet follows a pipeline architecture: readers ingest package manifests from diverse sources (directories, repositories, container images, SBOMs), enrichers augment each package with vulnerability, malware, and scorecard data from SafeDep Cloud, the CEL policy engine evaluates security policies against enriched data, and reporters produce actionable output in formats like SARIF, JSON, and Markdown.

graph TB
    subgraph "OSS Ecosystem"
        R1[npm Registry]
        R2[PyPI Registry]
        R3[Maven Central]
        R4[Other Registries]
    end

    subgraph "SafeDep Cloud"
        M[Continuous Monitoring]
        A[Real-time Code Analysis<br/>Malware Detection]
        T[Threat Intelligence DB<br/>Vulnerabilities • Malware • Scorecard]
    end

    subgraph "vet CLI"
        S[Source Repository<br/>Scanner]
        P[CEL Policy Engine]
        O[Reports & Actions<br/>SARIF/JSON/CSV]
    end

    R1 -->|New Packages| M
    R2 -->|New Packages| M
    R3 -->|New Packages| M
    R4 -->|New Packages| M
    M -->|Behavioral Analysis| A
    A -->|Malware Signals| T

    S -->|Query Package Info| T
    T -->|Security Intelligence| S
    S -->|Analysis Results| P
    P -->|Policy Decisions| O

    style M fill:#7CB9E8,stroke:#5A8DB8,color:#1a1a1a
    style A fill:#E8A87C,stroke:#B88A5A,color:#1a1a1a
    style T fill:#7CB9E8,stroke:#5A8DB8,color:#1a1a1a
    style S fill:#90C695,stroke:#6B9870,color:#1a1a1a
    style P fill:#E8C47C,stroke:#B89B5A,color:#1a1a1a
    style O fill:#B8A3D4,stroke:#9478AA,color:#1a1a1a

Key Features

Malicious Package Detection

Real-time protection against malicious packages powered by SafeDep Cloud. Free for open source projects. Detects zero-day malware through active code analysis.

Smart Vulnerability Analysis

Unlike dependency scanners that flood you with noise, vet analyzes your actual code usage to prioritize real risks. See dependency usage evidence for details.

Policy as Code

Define security policies using CEL expressions to enforce context specific requirements:

# Block packages with critical CVEs
vet scan --filter 'vulns.critical.exists(p, true)' --filter-fail

# Enforce license compliance
vet scan --filter 'licenses.contains_license("GPL-3.0")' --filter-fail

# Require minimum OpenSSF Scorecard scores
vet scan --filter 'scorecard.scores.Maintained < 5' --filter-fail

Multi-Ecosystem Support

Package managers: npm, PyPI, Maven, Go, Ruby, Rust, PHP Container images: Docker, OCI SBOM formats: CycloneDX, SPDX Source repositories: GitHub, GitLab

Malicious Package Detection

Real-time protection against malicious packages with active scanning and behavioral analysis.

Quick Setup

# One-time setup for advanced scanning
vet cloud quickstart

# Scan for malware with active scanning (requires API key)
vet scan -D . --malware

# Query known malicious packages (no API key needed)
vet scan -D . --malware-query

Example detections:

• MAL-2025-3541: express-cookie-parser
• MAL-2025-4339: eslint-config-airbnb-compat
• MAL-2025-4029: ts-runtime-compat-check

Key security features:

• Real-time analysis against known malware databases
• Behavioral analysis using static and dynamic analysis
• Zero-day protection through active code scanning
• Human-in-the-loop triaging for high-impact findings
• Public analysis log for transparency

Advanced Usage

# Specialized scans
vet scan --vsx --malware                    # VS Code extensions
vet scan -D .github/workflows --malware     # GitHub Actions
vet scan --image nats:2.10 --malware        # Container images

# Analyze specific packages
vet inspect malware --purl pkg:npm/[email protected]

Production Ready Integrations

GitHub Actions

Zero-config security guardrails in CI/CD:

- uses: safedep/vet-action@v1
  with:
    policy: ".github/vet/policy.yml"

See vet-action documentation.

GitLab CI

Enterprise scanning with vet CI Component:

include:
  - component: gitlab.com/safedep/ci-components/vet/scan@main

Container Integration

Run vet anywhere using our container image:

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/app ghcr.io/safedep/vet:latest scan -D /app --malware

Installation

Homebrew (Recommended)

brew install safedep/tap/vet

npm

npm install @safedep/vet

Direct Download

See releases for pre-built binaries.

Go Install

go install github.com/safedep/vet@latest

Container Image

# Quick test
docker run --rm ghcr.io/safedep/vet:latest version

# Scan local directory
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace ghcr.io/safedep/vet:latest scan -D /workspace

Verify Installation

vet version
# Should display version and build information

Advanced Features

Learn more in our comprehensive documentation:

• MCP Server - Run vet as an MCP server for AI-assisted code analysis
• AI Agent Mode - Run vet as an AI agent
• Reporting - SARIF, JSON, CSV, HTML, Markdown formats
• SBOM Support - CycloneDX, SPDX import/export
• Query Mode - Scan once, analyze multiple times
• GitHub Integration - Repository and organization scanning

Privacy

vet collects anonymous usage telemetry to improve the product. Your code and package information is never transmitted.

# Disable telemetry (optional)
export VET_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=true

Community & Support

Get Help & Share Ideas

• Interactive Tutorial - Learn vet hands-on
• Complete Documentation - Comprehensive guides
• Discord Community - Real-time support
• Issue Tracker - Bug reports & feature requests
• Contributing Guide - Join the development