--- id: cisco-ai-skill-scanner version: "2.0.13" license: Apache-2.0 license_treatment: permissive maintenance: active --- # cisco-ai-skill-scanner — Security scanner for Agent Skills packages - Detects prompt injection, data exfiltration, and malicious code License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 295.3K/mo ## What it is and what it does Cisco AI Skill Scanner is a multi-engine security scanner designed to detect threats in AI Agent Skills—executable skill definitions for LLM agents following OpenAI Codex or Cursor Agent formats. It combines static pattern matching (YAML + YARA rules), behavioral dataflow analysis, and optional LLM-as-a-judge semantic analysis to identify prompt injection, data exfiltration, and malicious code patterns. The tool explicitly disclaims comprehensive coverage: a clean scan does not guarantee security, and novel attacks may evade detection. The scanner integrates into CI/CD pipelines via SARIF output for GitHub Code Scanning, pre-commit hooks, and configurable exit codes. It supports custom YARA rules, threat taxonomies, and scan policies (strict/balanced/permissive), plus optional cloud integrations (VirusTotal, AWS Bedrock, Google Gemini, Azure OpenAI). A meta-analyzer reduces false positives, and an interactive wizard guides first-time users through CLI options. Use it for: - Scan AI agent skills in a GitHub Actions workflow before deployment to catch known threat patterns early. - Use as a pre-commit hook to prevent developers from committing skills with obvious prompt injection or exfiltration code. - Audit a repository of existing skills with behavioral and LLM analyzers enabled to identify latent threats across the codebase. - Generate SARIF reports for GitHub Code Scanning to surface skill security findings alongside other code quality checks. - Customize scan policies and YARA rules to match your organization's risk tolerance and threat model. - Integrate VirusTotal or Cisco AI Defense cloud scanning for binary and hash-based threat correlation. ## Worth the install? AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying. Scans AI Agent Skills for prompt injection, data exfiltration, and malicious code using pattern-based detection, LLM analysis, and behavioral dataflow inspection. Yes, with conditions. Install if you deploy AI agent skills and want a layered, best-effort threat detection baseline. The tool is actively maintained, has low install friction, and integrates cleanly into CI/CD. However, do not rely on it as your sole security control: the documentation explicitly warns that clean scans do not guarantee safety, and human code review remains essential for high-risk deployments. Suitable for teams building or consuming OpenAI Codex or Cursor Agent skills who need automated early warning. ## Install pip install cisco-ai-skill-scanner uv add cisco-ai-skill-scanner poetry add cisco-ai-skill-scanner ## Installing cisco-ai-skill-scanner Before you install: Low friction: pure Python wheel with no compiled dependencies. Active maintenance—released 11 days ago with 2431 GitHub stars. Requires Python 3.10+. Twenty runtime dependencies are substantial but all standard (anthropic, openai, fastapi, pydantic, yara-x, etc.), indicating a mature, feature-complete tool rather than a minimal proof-of-concept. License in practice: Apache-2.0 permissive license allows commercial and private use without restriction, modification, or redistribution obligations beyond license notice. Quickstart: pip install cisco-ai-skill-scanner skill-scanner scan /path/to/skill # With LLM analysis and behavioral dataflow: skill-scanner scan /path/to/skill --use-behavioral --use-llm Requires Python 3.10 or later. LLM and cloud-based analyzers require API keys (SKILL_SCANNER_LLM_API_KEY, VIRUSTOTAL_API_KEY, AI_DEFENSE_API_KEY) set as environment variables; core static analysis runs without them. Verify before relying: - Actual false positive rate and detection precision across different threat categories in production use. - Performance characteristics (scan time, memory usage) on large skill repositories or complex dataflow graphs. - Whether the LLM consensus mode (multiple runs) materially improves detection accuracy over single-run LLM analysis. ## Package facts - License: Apache-2.0 (permissive) - Python support: supports_current - Install friction: low - Maintenance: active - Downloads: 295.3K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI) - Known vulnerabilities: none known ## Tags ai agent skill security scanner, prompt injection detection, llm security analysis, agent skills threat detection, malicious code pattern detection, data exfiltration scanning, openai codex skill scanner, cursor agent skill security, ai-security, threat-detection, ci-cd-ready [View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/cisco-ai-skill-scanner) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/cisco-ai-skill-scanner/)