apm audit

Synopsis

apm audit [PACKAGE] [OPTIONS]

Description

apm audit is the explicit security and integrity tool. It runs in two modes:

• Content scan mode (default). Scans deployed prompt, instruction, skill, and rules files for hidden Unicode that can embed invisible instructions in agent context, and replays the install pipeline into a scratch tree to detect drift (hand-edits to deployed files, missing integrations, orphaned files vs the lockfile). Can also remediate findings with --strip or scan an arbitrary file with --file.
• CI gate mode (--ci). Runs lockfile consistency checks plus drift in machine-readable form (text, JSON, or SARIF) suitable for branch-protection gates. Auto-discovers org policy from your project’s git remote unless --no-policy is set.

This is the explicit power tool. Built-in protection against critical Unicode findings already runs automatically in apm install, apm compile, and apm unpack; you do not need to call apm audit to be safe by default. See Drift and secure by default for the consumer-side overview and Enforce in CI for the gating workflow. For marketplace plugin transitive-dependency pinning, see apm marketplace audit.

PACKAGE, when supplied, is the lockfile package key (the repo URL) of a single installed dependency to scan. Omit it to scan every installed package plus local .apm/ content.

Options

Content scan

Flag	Default	Description
--file PATH	unset	Scan an arbitrary file instead of installed packages. Bypasses drift detection.
--strip	off	Remove critical and warning severity characters in place. Preserves emoji and ZWJ inside emoji sequences.
--dry-run	off	Preview what --strip would remove without modifying files.
--no-drift	off	Skip the install-replay drift check (reduces coverage). Mutually exclusive with --strip and --file.
--verbose, -v	off	Show info-level findings and per-file detail. No effect in --ci mode.

External scanners (experimental)

Gated by the external-scanners experimental flag (apm experimental enable external-scanners). Folds findings from any SARIF 2.1.0 scanner into the report. CLI-driven and install-method-neutral — no pip extra; works with the APM binary. See External scanners.

Flag	Default	Description
--external NAME	unset	Ingest findings from an external SARIF-native scanner (repeatable). Names: skillspector (invokes the CLI on PATH), sarif (ingests a file via --external-sarif). Cannot be combined with --strip, --dry-run, or --ci.
--external-sarif PATH	unset	SARIF file to ingest for --external sarif.
--external-llm / --no-external-llm	adapter default	Force a scanner’s LLM-powered analysis on or off for this run (overrides config). SkillSpector default is offline --no-llm. LLM mode makes outbound API calls and needs OPENAI_API_KEY or NVIDIA_INFERENCE_KEY; missing the key fails closed. Requires --external.
--external-args TEXT	unset	Extra scanner CLI flags as a single shlex-split string (e.g. "--model gpt-4o"). Allowlist-validated per adapter; secret-looking or out-of-cwd tokens are rejected fail-closed. Overrides config args. Requires --external.

When LLM mode is active APM prints a [!] egress banner before the scan noting that outbound API calls will be made. --external-llm / --external-args used without --external <name> raise a usage error (exit 2).

Output

Flag	Default	Description
--format, -f text|json|sarif|markdown	text	Output format. sarif targets GitHub Code Scanning. markdown is for GitHub step summaries and is not allowed with --ci.
--output, -o PATH	stdout	Write the report to a file. Format is auto-detected from extension (.sarif, .sarif.json, .json, .md) when --format is omitted.

CI gate

Flag	Default	Description
--ci	off	Run lockfile consistency checks and drift as a CI gate. Cannot be combined with --strip, --dry-run, --file, or PACKAGE.
--policy SOURCE	auto	Policy source for --ci. Accepts org (auto-discover from the project’s git remote), owner/repo, an https:// URL, or a local file path. Experimental. Without --ci it is ignored with a warning.
--no-policy	off	Skip policy discovery and enforcement. Equivalent to APM_POLICY_DISABLE=1. Overridden when --policy is passed explicitly.
--no-cache	off	Force a fresh policy fetch (skip the policy cache). Only relevant with policy discovery active.
--no-fail-fast	off	Run every check even after the first failure, for a full diagnostic report.

Examples

Default audit (content scan plus drift)

apm audit

Scan a specific installed package

apm audit https://github.com/owner/repo

Scan an arbitrary file outside APM

apm audit --file .cursorrules

Remediate findings

# Preview what --strip would remove
apm audit --strip --dry-run

# Strip critical and warning severity characters in place
apm audit --strip

Reports

# SARIF to stdout (for GitHub Code Scanning upload)
apm audit -f sarif

# JSON to a file
apm audit -f json -o results.json

# Markdown for a GitHub Actions step summary
apm audit -f markdown -o "$GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"

# Auto-detect format from extension
apm audit -o report.sarif

External scanners

# Invoke SkillSpector on PATH (offline by default)
apm audit --external skillspector

# Opt into LLM-powered analysis (needs an API key; makes network calls)
apm audit --external skillspector --external-llm

# Pass allowlisted scanner flags
apm audit --external skillspector --external-args "--model gpt-4o"

# Ingest a SARIF file from any scanner
apm audit --external sarif --external-sarif report.sarif

CI gate

# Default CI gate (auto-discovers org policy)
apm audit --ci

# CI gate, baseline checks only (no policy)
apm audit --ci --no-policy

# CI gate with an explicit policy source
apm audit --ci --policy org
apm audit --ci --policy ./apm-policy.yml

# Full diagnostic report (don't stop at first failure)
apm audit --ci --no-fail-fast

# CI gate as JSON or SARIF
apm audit --ci -f json
apm audit --ci -f sarif -o audit.sarif

For the full workflow, see Enforce in CI.

Behavior

Severity levels (content scan)

Severity	Examples	Effect
Critical	Tag characters (U+E0001-E007F), bidi overrides (U+202A-E, U+2066-9), variation selectors 17-256 (U+E0100-E01EF, the Glassworm vector)	Exit 1. Removed by --strip. Blocks apm install / apm compile / apm unpack by default.
Warning	Zero-width spaces and joiners (U+200B-D), variation selectors 1-15 (U+FE00-FE0E), bidi marks (U+200E-F, U+061C), invisible operators (U+2061-4), annotation markers (U+FFF9-B), deprecated formatting (U+206A-F), soft hyphen (U+00AD), mid-file BOM	Exit 2 if no critical findings. Removed by --strip.
Info	Non-breaking and unusual whitespace, emoji presentation selector (U+FE0F), ZWJ between emoji characters	Exit 0. Shown only with --verbose. Preserved by --strip.

Drift detection

The default audit replays the install pipeline into a scratch tree and diffs the result against the working tree. It catches hand-edits to deployed files, missing integrations from a skipped apm install, and orphaned files. Drift is whole-project only; --file and explicit PACKAGE runs skip it. Use --no-drift to opt out (not recommended outside performance-constrained CI loops).

CI checks (--ci)

--ci runs the baseline lockfile consistency checks defined in src/apm_cli/policy/ci_checks.py: lockfile presence, ref consistency, deployed-files presence, no orphaned packages, skill-subset consistency, MCP config consistency, content integrity (Unicode plus per-file SHA-256 hash drift on every deployed file, including local .apm/ content via the synthesized self-entry), and an advisory includes consent check. Drift detection runs alongside and contributes to the exit code unless --no-drift is set. With policy discovery active, declared policy rules are evaluated against the resolved manifest.

Mutual exclusions

• --no-drift cannot be combined with --strip or --file.
• --ci cannot be combined with --strip, --dry-run, --file, or PACKAGE.
• --ci does not support --format markdown.
• --external cannot be combined with --strip, --dry-run, or --ci; --external-sarif requires --external sarif; --external-llm / --no-external-llm and --external-args require --external.

Exit codes

Content scan mode

Code	Meaning
0	Clean, info-only findings, drift-only (advisory) in bare audit, or successful --strip.
1	Critical findings detected.
2	Warning-only findings, or usage error (mutually exclusive flags).
3	Configuration or infrastructure error (feature not enabled, scanner not found, malformed SARIF).

CI gate mode (--ci)

Code	Meaning
0	All checks passed.
1	One or more checks failed (including drift, hash drift, or policy violations).

Related

• apm install — the built-in scan that blocks critical findings before deployment.
• Drift and secure by default — consumer-side overview of the two-layer security model.
• Enforce in CI — wiring apm audit --ci into branch protection.