compliance-checker

# Compliance Checker

Assess OpenClaw skills against defined security policies. Track compliance posture across your skill inventory with framework-mapped findings and remediation tracking.

## Why This Exists

Security scanners find vulnerabilities. Trust verifiers check provenance. But neither answers: "Does this skill meet our security policy?" Compliance Checker bridges the gap — define what "compliant" means for your environment, then assess every skill against those rules.

## Quick Start

### Define a policy
```bash
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py policy create --name "production" --description "Production deployment requirements"
```

### Add rules to the policy
```bash
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py policy add-rule --policy "production" \
  --rule "no-critical-findings" \
  --description "No CRITICAL findings from skill scanner" \
  --severity critical

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py policy add-rule --policy "production" \
  --rule "trust-verified" \
  --description "Must have VERIFIED or TRUSTED trust level" \
  --severity high

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py policy add-rule --policy "production" \
  --rule "no-network-calls" \
  --description "No unauthorized network calls in scripts" \
  --severity high

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py policy add-rule --policy "production" \
  --rule "no-shell-exec" \
  --description "No shell=True or subprocess calls" \
  --severity medium

python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py policy add-rule --policy "production" \
  --rule "has-checksum" \
  --description "Must have SHA-256 checksums for all scripts" \
  --severity medium
```

### Assess a skill against a policy
```bash
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py assess --skill "arc-budget-tracker" --policy "production"
```

### Assess all installed skills
```bash
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py assess-all --policy "production"
```

### View compliance status
```bash
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py status --policy "production"
```

### Generate compliance report
```bash
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py report --policy "production" --format json
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py report --policy "production" --format text
```

## Built-in Rules

The following rules are available out of the box:

| Rule | What it checks | Framework mapping |
|------|---------------|-------------------|
| `no-critical-findings` | No CRITICAL findings from scanner | CIS Control 16, OWASP A06 |
| `no-high-findings` | No HIGH findings from scanner | CIS Control 16, OWASP A06 |
| `trust-verified` | Trust level is VERIFIED or TRUSTED | CIS Control 2 |
| `no-network-calls` | No unauthorized network requests | CIS Control 9, OWASP A10 |
| `no-shell-exec` | No shell execution patterns | CIS Control 2, OWASP A03 |
| `no-eval-exec` | No eval/exec patterns | OWASP A03 |
| `has-checksum` | SHA-256 checksums for all files | CIS Control 2 |
| `no-env-access` | No environment variable access | CIS Control 3 |
| `no-data-exfil` | No data exfiltration patterns | CIS Control 3, CIS Control 13 |
| `version-pinned` | All dependencies version-pinned | CIS Control 2 |

## Compliance Status

Each skill-policy assessment produces one of:

- **COMPLIANT** — Passes all rules in the policy
- **NON-COMPLIANT** — Fails one or more rules
- **EXEMPTED** — Has approved exemptions for all failures
- **UNKNOWN** — Not yet assessed

## Exemptions

Sometimes a skill legitimately needs to violate a rule (e.g., a network monitoring skill needs network access). Record exemptions with justification:

```bash
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py exempt --skill "arc-skill-scanner" \
  --rule "no-network-calls" \
  --reason "Scanner needs network access to check URLs against blocklists" \
  --approved-by "arc"
```

## Remediation Tracking

When a skill fails compliance, track the fix:

```bash
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py remediate --skill "some-skill" \
  --rule "no-shell-exec" \
  --action "Replaced subprocess.call with safer alternative" \
  --status fixed
```

## Storage

Compliance data is stored in `~/.openclaw/compliance/`:
- `policies/` — Policy definitions (JSON)
- `assessments/` — Assessment results per skill (JSON)
- `exemptions/` — Approved exemptions (JSON)
- `remediations/` — Remediation tracking (JSON)

## Integration

Compliance Checker reads output from:
- **arc-skill-scanner** — vulnerability findings
- **arc-trust-verifier** — trust levels and attestations

Run a full pipeline:
```bash
# Scan → verify trust → assess compliance
python3 {baseDir}/scripts/checker.py pipeline --skill "some-skill" --policy "production"
```